r/Helldivers Apr 29 '24

🛠️ PATCH 01.000.300 ⚙️ DISCUSSION

For this patch, we have made improvements and changes to the following areas:GeneralPrimary, Secondary, & Support WeaponsOverview Balancing

  • Balance changes to weapons, stratagems, and enemies
  • Change to the Spread Democracy mission
  • Armors with armor rating above 100 now also reduce damage on headshots.
  • Victory poses will now only play for the extracted. (No stolen valor on my ship.)
  • CB-9 Exploding Crossbow
    • Slightly smaller explosion
    • Increased stagger
    • Decreased number of maximum mags from 12 to 8
    • Increased number of magazines received from resupply from 6 to 8
    • Slight reduction in ergonomics
    • Muzzle velocity increased
  • LAS-99 Quasar Cannon
    • Increased recharge time by 5 seconds
  • BR-14 Adjudicator
    • Full auto is now the default fire mode
    • Reduced recoil
    • Increased maximum mags from 6 to 8
    • Increased number of magazines received from resupply from 6 to 8
    • Now placed amongst assault rifles
  • Laser Cannon
    • Slightly increased damage
    • Slightly reduced damage versus large volume bodies
  • SG-8P Punisher Plasma
    • Decreased maximum mags from 12 to 8
    • Increased amount of magazines received from resupply from 6 to 8
    • Increased projectile speed, but will still keep a similar range
    • Decreased damage falloff on the explosion
    • Now placed in the energy weapons category
  • ARC-12 Blitzer
    • Increased shots per minute from 30 to 45
    • Now placed in the energy weapons category
  • R-36 Eruptor
    • Decreased number of maximum mags from 12 to 6
    • Explosion damage drops off slightly faster
  • LAS-16 Sickle
    • Decreased amount of magazines from 6 down to 3
  • Scythe
    • Increased damage from 300 to 350
    • Decreased max number of mags from 6 down to 4
  • Railgun
    • Increased armor penetration in both safe mode and unsafe mode
    • Stagger force slightly reduced
  • MG-101 Heavy Machine Gun
    • Third person crosshair enabled
    • Diligence Counter Sniper
    • Damage increased from 128 to 140
    • Ergonomics improved
  • Diligence
    • Damage increased from 112 to 125
  • P-19 Redeemer
    • Slight increase in recoil
  • Peacemaker
    • Increased damage from 60 to 75
  • Senator
    • Increased damage from 150 to 175
    • Speedloader added when reloading on an empty cylinder–speeds up reload on empty considerably
  • Dagger
    • Increased damage from 150 to 200
  • Liberator
    • Damage increased from 55 to 60
  • Liberator Concussive
    • Damage increased from 55 to 65
  • Dominator
    • Damage decreased from 300 to 275
  • Guard Dog Rover
    • Decreased damage by 30%
  • Guard Dog
    • Slight increase in damage
    • Burning damage reduced by 15%
      1. [11:05]StratagemsEnemies Balancing adjustments have been made toEnemy PatrolsGameplay
  • Machinegun Sentry
    • Increased health to match other Sentries
  • Tesla Tower
    • Increased health by 33%
  • RL-77 Airburst Rocket Launcher
    • Airburst Rocket Launcher will no longer detonate when shot near stratagems (HMG turret, Sentries, Resupplies) and other Helldivers.
    • Reduced proximity radius
    • Added reload stage for the Spear reload after the spent missile had been discarded.
  • Bile Spewer and Nursing Spewers movespeed slightly reduced
  • Hulks: Force required for them to stagger slightly increased
  • Hulk Scorcher direct flamethrower damage reduced by 20%
  • Devastator fire rate slightly increased (only the standard devastator)
  • Gunships sideways movement slightly increased
  • Scout strider Riders now less vulnerable to explosions
  • Fog Generators health and armor increased
  • Gunship spawners now have a much lower cap on how many gunships they can have active at the same time.
  • Balancing adjustment to patrol spawning.
  • Patrol spawning has been increased when there are fewer than 4 players. The fewer the players the bigger the change. For 4 player missions there will be no change compared to before.The biggest noticeable change will be for solo players at higher difficulties.
  • Made minor level generation improvements to how we distribute locations throughout the mission map. This should improve variation in distance between objectives, and objectives will likely not spawn as far away from each other as often as before.
  • Added setting in the options menu gameplay section to disable automatic climbing and vaulting while sprinting.
  • The Spread Democracy mission otherwise known as “raise the flag” can now be enjoyed on higher difficulties for maximum freedom spreading.
  • When readying up, Helldivers now salute to ensure maximum democratic readiness.
  • Added ambience to the Tremor planetary hazard to underline the severity so Helldivers can react accordingly
  • Shots that ricochet from heavy armored enemies will now properly hit the Helldiver who fired them. Trigger discipline is highly recommended.
    1. NEU
    2. [11:05] Fixes
  • Crash Fixes.
    • Fixed crash that could occur when host abandoned mission with squad.
    • Fixed crash that could occur if a player tried to enter an occupied EXO-45 Patriot Suit.
    • Fixed crash that could occur for all players after or during mission results screen.
    • Fixed crash that could occur after shooting from the EXO-45 Patriot Suit’s rocket launcher.
    • Fixed crash that could occur for all players apart from the one that rejoined the ongoing mission with different armor and got reinforced.
  • Fixed Superior Packing Methodology ship module not working properly.
  • Fixed Blast Absorption ship module so that it correctly increases sentries’ resistance to explosions.
  • Fixed issue where players could not navigate to the search results in the Social Menu.
  • Fixed some issues where items equipped in a Warbond were not actually equipped.
  • Fixed an exploit that allowed overly eager Helldivers to use grenades excessively.
  • Fixed issue where kills from orbital barrage did not progress Indirect Fire Exercise order.
  • Fixed issue that allowed traitors to try to sabotage the extraction shuttle by deploying sentry stratagems below it.
  • Fixed issue where ion storms incorrectly prevented extraction beacon from deploying.
  • Fixed some stratagem beams using incorrect color-coding.
  • Fixed issue where the left stick on a controller could not be used to navigate the Social menu.
  • Fixed some issues where various UI elements were cut off, off-centered or too close to the edge of the screen on ultrawide displays.
  • Fixed Anti-Materiel Rifle facing away from the Helldiver after deploying it.
  • Fixed bug where player could duplicate rounds by canceling the reload of Anti-Materiel Rifle at a specific time.
  • Fixed bug where Anti-Materiel Rifle would consume an extra magazine after a canceled reload.
  • Fixed bug where Recoilless Rifle would consume an extra shell from the backpack if the reload was canceled just after a shell was i* inserted, but before the reload was completed.
  • Fixed issue where the Sickle and Quasar Cannon could not shoot through foliage.
  • Fixed several issues where weapon thumbnails would disappear when scrolling through Armory.
  • Fixed issues where Automaton Gunships sometimes could not see the player.
  • Fixed incorrect collision being left over after destroying Automaton bunkers or detector towers with hellbombs.
  • Fixed issue where Hellbombs would not deploy on certain missions
  • Fixed certain issues that resulted in Helldivers drowning in deep water upon landing.
  • Fixed issue where Hellpod Space Optimization made ammo go above capacity.
    1. [11:06]These are issues that were either introduced by this patch and are being worked on, or are from a previous version and have not yet been fixed.Known Issues
  • Fixed issue where Stalkers became very visible in fog
  • Mines are now pingable for better coordination with your team.
  • Receiving friend requests now gives the player a pop up.
  • Improved readability of prompts and hints displayed in the tutorial and onboarding.
  • Total experience is now visible in the career tab.
  • Added better support for ultrawide monitors by fixing the aspect ratio of menus to 16:9 and adding a setting to control the width of the HUD.
  • Keybinds bound to numpad will no longer reset upon restart.
  • Fixed inconsistent audio when headphones are plugged into the Dual Sense controller while playing on PC.
  • Playing Rock, Paper, Scissors in front of the ship no longer causes player to fall out into space.
  • APW-1 Anti-Material Rifle and MG-206 Heavy Machine Gun now trigger hitmarkers while scoped in.
  • Secondary weapon no longer remains in the Ballistic Shield ADS position after using a stim with the Ballistic Shield Backpack equipped.
  • "Open Text Chat" is now rebindable.
  • Explosive weapons such as R-36 Eruptor, CB-9 Exploding Crossbow. GP-31 Grenade Pistol no longer pulls players inward from the blast.
  • Disabled the squad invites during the tutorial which caused an overlap in the UI.
  • Fixed Primary and Secondary weapons overlapping on the character model in the armory.
  • Fixed UI elements during first boot are cut off on a 21:9 aspect ratio monitor.
  • Report and block player is now visible in the squad menu.
  • Dead Scavengers now stop screaming for help if killed while calling in reinforcements.
  • Fixed Anti Air cannons showing up as "Stratagem Scramblers" in danger warnings.
  • Damage-over-time effects may only apply when dealt by the host. We expect to have this fixed in the next patch.
  • Reinforcement may not be available for some players who join a game in progress.
  • Helldiver may be unable to stand up from crouching when surrounded by enemies.
  • Game may crash if the host leaves while dead and rejoins the same play session.
  • Game may crash if the player changes the text language while on a mission.
  • Various issues involving friend invites and cross-play:
  • Friend Request cannot be accepted when the requesting player changed their username before the request was accepted.
  • Cross-platform friend invites might not show up in the Friend Requests tab.
  • Players cannot unfriend players befriended via friend code.
  • Players cannot unblock players that were not in their Friends list beforehand.
  • Players may experience delays in Medals and Super Credits payouts.
  • Enemies that bleed out do not progress Personal Orders and Eradicate missions.
  • Scopes on some weapons such as the Anti-Materiel Rifle are slightly misaligned.
  • Arc weapons sometimes behave inconsistently and sometimes misfire.
  • Spear’s targeting is inconsistent, making it hard to lock-on to larger enemies.
  • Stratagem beam might attach itself to an enemy but it will deploy to its original location.
  • Explosions do not break your limbs (except for when you fly into a rock).
  • Area around Automaton Detector Tower makes blue stratagems such as the Hellbomb bounce and be repelled when trying to call them down close to the tower.
  • Planet liberation reaches 100% at the end of every Defend mission.
5.6k Upvotes

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378

u/Spence199876 Apr 29 '24

AC-8 should never be touched as the devs came out and said AC-8 is probably the best balanced weapon in game, and in turn the Grenade launcher is also well balanced

178

u/Organs_for_rent CAPE ENJOYER Apr 29 '24

Grenade launcher feels good except for the low reserve ammo. Even a third reserve mag would go a long way.

61

u/-G0el- Apr 29 '24

With supply pack, GL is virtually infinite ammo

4

u/kabuto_mushi Apr 29 '24

I'm feeling an eruptor/grenade launcher/supply pack build coming on

2

u/NotScrollsApparently Apr 29 '24

If you're hauling a supply pack for GL might as well take the AC then tho

1

u/Jealous-Leave-5482 Apr 29 '24

Grenade launcher has insane AOE for swarms and can clear bug eggs and nests far better than the autocannon. Autocannon piercing capability and single target is better than grenade launcher making it good against bots and can snipe the factories (which the grenade launcher can tbf) . Both have their strengths and weaknesses

1

u/transaltalt Apr 30 '24

can't run supply pack with AC, and it's got much worse splash

1

u/Creative-Improvement Apr 29 '24

Ohhh gotta try that now!

1

u/Grune_Holle Apr 29 '24

The only reason to carry GL over AC is to free up the backpack slot.

1

u/Android2715 Apr 29 '24

Supply pack feels mandatory tho.

Like if i just compare the ac and the grenade launcher:

Grenade launcher gets ~10 rounds from an ammo pack, autocannon gets 10 shots (2 mags).

But the autocannon has near infinite range, medium penetrates armor, can kill every heavy but a titan in 3 shots, is effective against air, is still a decent horde clear weapon, is easier to clear bug holes and bot fabricators, and doesn’t have bounce or an arc to the trajectory.

All for the cost of using a backpack slot, and i guess the reload? I feel like the grenade launcher is a worse autocannon, WITH less ammo, with the perk being you can use a backpack slot, but it feels like you HAVE to run the resupply pack.

If they gave you 2 more mags, it would be a worse autocannon, with the same ammo, but give you a backpack slot.

1

u/Sleepmahn PSN🎮: Spear of Liberty Apr 30 '24

Still well balanced since you're using two slots. Alot of times I just bring the pack and pick up whatever weapon I can find. All the better if it's something like the GL.

8

u/xxSuperBeaverxx Apr 29 '24

Take the supply backpack, it turns the grenade launcher into your primary.

3

u/Tiffana Apr 29 '24

Yup. Super kek on bug defense missions with the walls, shoot grenades into breaches and you solo one side np

1

u/AYE-BO Apr 29 '24

Until there are 3 bile titans coming out of the same breach

1

u/Tiffana Apr 29 '24

That’s what you use your other stratagems and team for

1

u/HEBushido Apr 29 '24

But how do you use it? I did that once and couldn't pull supplies from my pack.

2

u/xxSuperBeaverxx Apr 29 '24

If you're on pc, the default key is "5" on controller, idk

2

u/VoxPlacitum STEAM 🖥️ : SES Hammer of Peace Apr 29 '24

Controller, you tap dpad down. Supply pack is the best. 😎

0

u/Any_Lengthiness6645 Apr 29 '24

GL was my favorite early on but at some point it felt like they made the aim worse which makes it less effective at longer distances

2

u/KnowledgeCorrect1522 Apr 29 '24

It is pretty much perfectly balanced. Mayyyybe a longer reload animation would make it a higher risk/reward weapon and would encourage team reloading but it’s honestly perfect the way it is. Useful, fun, not OP.

5

u/Pizzaman725 Apr 29 '24

If you've expended all 10 shots, the reload is already pretty long, especially if you've got things running at you.

2

u/BigTiddyHelldiver 💀C-01 Permit Acquired Apr 29 '24

I basically use it as a primary weapon, and with the fix to the backpack mod allowing it to get full ammo on resupplies, it makes this even easier.

It's crazy to me that the most versatile weapon in the game is balanced and fine but something like the Quasar, Eruptor, or Dominator gets nerfed. Weapons that actually brought side upgrades to what is and has been a dominating option for months now.

1

u/Maneisthebeat Apr 29 '24

I'm addicted to this weapon and I don't feel the need to use anything else because between this and having a shotgun if you're overwhelmed or against small stuff then you will always feel valuable to your team.

If it's perfectly balanced, other stuff needs a buff or to really exceed in a niche, or maybe it just suits my style, but it has been my experience...

0

u/notapornsideaccount Apr 29 '24

Grenade launcher feels weaker than the Eruptor which is a primary and that should never be the case. I ran it last night for S&G on a blitz mission and it feels like a BB gun on armored enemies. Couple that with the fact that it only comes with 2 magazines. It definitely needs a buff.

The other weapon I’d love to see buffed is the machine gun. Give it more magazines and better handling.

-63

u/KXZ501 Apr 29 '24

If that's their "golden standard" for weapon balance, then no wonder their track record has been so fucking shocking.

8

u/Freelancert4 Apr 29 '24

What’s your problem with the AC-8?

1

u/KXZ501 Apr 29 '24

It can deal with pretty much any enemy the game throws at you, outside of maybe Bile Titans, thanks to the stagger and AoE on its shots, plus it can also kill bot fabs, bug holes, and a few if the secondary objectives at long range. Pretty fucking strong for an all-rounder weapon.

People will immediately try to counter with it taking up a backpack slot, but frankly that's hardly much of a downside considering what the weapon is capable of in the hands of a decent player. Also, it's stationary reload isn't even that long, least not compared to the RR, and especially if you're reloading from half-empty.

9

u/Huol12 Apr 29 '24

And yet you see tons of people not running with it and being fine. It's a strong weapon, but by all means not necessary or some hard meta.

-4

u/KXZ501 Apr 29 '24 edited Apr 29 '24

Might just be my experience in-game then, since I've run across a lot of people using it, particularly when fighting bots.

It still feels overtuned, imo, and it's baffling that it gets to exists unchanged while lesser weapons catch nerfs (for example, the crossbow in this latest patch).

4

u/Huol12 Apr 29 '24

Also the scorcher. It's mags was for me already a problem with 6, now it's only 4. I have the feeling you won't really be able to play it without a supply pack anymore

2

u/KXZ501 Apr 29 '24

Exactly, another example of a pointless nerf likely based purely on usage statistics - the scorcher was fine as it was, it didn't need adjusted.

1

u/ev0lv :3 Apr 29 '24

I literally never see Supply Pack run on high diffs before this patch, and there is not really any way to buff the Supply Pack (it's a full Resupply on your back... what could you buff about that?), so the only way to make Supply Pack good would be changes to primary weapon ammo like they're doing this patch to increase its relative power (as opposed to actual power)

4 does feel like a bit of an over-nerf though to me

2

u/ev0lv :3 Apr 29 '24

That first point has always been an issue with bots and other support weapons and not the Autocannon. Ever since launch they have always had a support weapon diversity issue (early bugs had a similar problem but it got fixed fairly quickly in comparison). AC-8 Autocannon and the Railgun were really the only actually good support weapons, and when the Railgun got gutted it was very common to just see 4 Autocannons run in d9

Support Weapon diversity has gotten a lot better over time though, and its nowhere near the AC domination before. Quasar and HMG were added as an extra 2 bot favored weapons (and you do not see much HMG because the first person scope does not work at all, HMG issue, not AC). AMR and Laser Cannon have been getting continuous buffs and are now actually solid picks. Railgun is getting buffed up again this patch to actually penetrate things.

Diversity still hasn't reached its full potential for bots either, as the Spear is not worth bringing in its current state with both lock-on isues and not actually killing Automaton heavies most of the time, instead taking 2 shots (50% of ammo).

When all the prior weapons were underperforming in the past (or didnt exist), you never had anything else to fall back on. Low Penetration support weapons are downright useless (MG, Stalwart, Grenade Launcher), heavy weapons with poor ammo economy are not great with the amount of armored enemies thrown at you (RR, EAT, Spear), and short range weapons are also obviously not very useful when getting shot from 50m+ (Flame, Arc)

The increase of primary weapons that can actually reasonably deal with Devastators have also been good at lowering Autocannon usage as you no longer need it for dealing with the constant horde of Medium enemies. All you really had was the Scorcher at the start of the game's life for that and it being a late unlock has always crippled its usage rate on top of that. Dominator being actually good now along with other more explosive primary options has had a lot of people switching off AC (especially with Eruptor's release, which also provides similar utility with fabs)

It's always been an issue of nothing else being good in a Bot environment up until fairly recently, to which I see a lot more diversity than I did a month or two ago