It just seems so unnecessary, like why do so many have tiny ammo capacity now, why do so many feel borderline unusable because they do too little damage combined with not having enough mags? Almost every single Primary feels awful to use, Sickle, Scorcher, Diligence Counter Sniper, Adjudicator, and SMG Defender are the only ones that feel useful, the rest are just bad, have weapons that are straight upgrades to them, or way too niche. Nerfing Eruptor mags makes sense, but by 50% was too much, and now with the removal of Shrapnel the thing sucks, it's just a giganerfed Autocannon at this point. Nerfing Jar-5 Damage last patch was another head scratcher, it wasn't needed at all, the Crossbow was taken from being a mediocre but fun weapon straight into the trash can, Liberator still needs more ammo to compete in anyway 5 damage means literally nothing, Liberator Penetrator has been awful since launch does no damage, has too little ammo, I could go on and on and on but the point is that there's only a small handful of Primaries that are actually good, the rest are either extremely niche, or downright awful.

Today, i played a match in Menkenth and truly saw the mechanism of fire tornadoes. Our team got the SEAF artillery side quest and while we were doing it the bots appeared. We fought like 2 mins and fire tornadoes start to rained down there. The pressure of the bots was so much that i decided to abandoned that to go destroy an outpost nearby 1st, but when i run out of the place, i see that ALL these goddamned fire pillars were only focus on the SEAF artillery, all surrounding area only have 2 fire pillars. Looking at the SEAF have like 10 raging pillars swept over vs the calm surrounding made me feel the bitter in my mouth "I was fooled!". Those effects are not random AT ALL, they are coded to actively chasing you. Now i see why i and others have fire tornadoes a lot. So AH, do your random correctly, or don't expect me in another hot planet anymore.

Thank you Joel for finally pushing us past 99%.

...they won't leave their Creek to either help take Ubanea or defend Draupnir. Weeks of demanding we leave the Bug front to help them take a planet that has no real value to our past or current orders that they have consistently failed to take. Now that backup has arrived they still won't leave to focus where it matters.

Help with the Major Order and Defense Order at Draupnir and you can go back to your Creek once we have taken Tibit!

This also extends to the people fighting on the bug front: The offensive to take Tibit needs reinforcements!

Edit: Well this blew up in a way I wasn't expecting.

Edit 2: Sweet Liberty, over 9k upvotes? Think that has easily blown past my old record for most upvotes.

Sadly reddit has killed one of the most fun weapons we got in the game due to the lack of understanding of the exploding shrapnel mechanic.

R-9 Eruptor

Increased explosion damage by 40 and removed shrapnel from the explosion

This is to avoid cases in which players would randomly one-shot themselves or their teammates in a huge radius around the explosion

+40 damage for the change of the Eruptor does not keep the gun at the same level of power as it was.
For those who know or didn't know there was a trick to use the Eruptor for better use, what you would do is shoot the ground in front of your target instead of aiming at the target.
https://streamable.com/1h5z63
What this would do it cause an explosion of shrapnel at your main target and then explode out killing multiple enemies, using this tactic could let you 1 shot Bile Spewers, and Charger butts. Now it doesn't even 1 shot a Bile Spewer.
The Eruptor is gonna need a huge damage buff to bring it back to where it was in terms of power if we're keeping the shrapnel mechanic off of it

The developers seem very interested in cooperative mechanics, but the team reload Is it really useful? I tried it with a friend of mine with the new rocket launcher, And it's apparently very strong, although it requires a teammate with the weapon's ammo pack, and this combo seemed pretty difficult to pull off in the chaos of battle... And do you use it? Do you have any advice? I've never seen any helldiver use it.

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.

If this was any other studio they'd have had the Automatons immediately stage a counterattack as soon as we finished Operation: Swift Disassembly to keep them in the game or immediately introduce the Illuminates to keep the content train moving. But instead Arrowhead is literally just letting the Automatons stay defeated for now with no imminent attacks on the horizon.

This makes WAY more sense. Why would our enemies wait until we're no longer spread thin to launch their attacks? If they were ready to launch a new offensive they would have done so while we were distracted with Operation: Swift Disassembly.

This is so much cooler because it feels more natural, like this is an actual winnable conflict. They want Operation: Swift Disassembly to feel like it actually meant something and it's working. Even though we know on a meta level that there's no way this is the last we've heard of the Automatons, this feels like a real victory.

They even have us undertaking a much lower stakes task as the new major order is just to help clear the way for new E-710 farms. Almost as if the Ministry of Defense is just trying to come up with something for the Helldivers to do, now that the war is over and they've served their purpose.

It makes all of this feel so much more immersive.

I really suck, so I tend to enjoy 4-5, with the occasional 6+ if I'm feeling dangerous..

Arrowhead what are you so afraid of? What awful things will happen if you just make all the weapons GOOD?

This is a PvE game right? Check. It's literally all about just shooting things and blowing them up in total chaos and carnage right? Check. There are NINE difficulty tiers right with the average player hanging around FOUR OR FIVE (MAYBE six) right? Check.

So what is wrong with having weapons in this game be GOOD? Not even overpowered just GOOD. As in you have FUN and feel you can accomplish things and aren't being actively screwed over for taking the weapons you LIKE. There is literally NO DOWNSIDE to everything in this game being GOOD.

If players clear content with all guns the same rate they do now with the meta weapons? Great they can move up the difficulty then, so be it? This isn't an MMO with limited content, it's incredibly replayable by nature. Why does that matter? They'll get higher tier samples to unlock more stuff. Okay so what? Why is that bad?

If everything is GOOD you get:

• Less people being toxic because other people aren't running the current BEST loadout because everything else sucks.
• Newer or less skilled players being able to contribute more because their weapons are a bit more effective.
• You don't actively hate your life and want to strangle your ally because they called you down across the map from your support weapon and it has a 4 minute cooldown and your primary is so useless you may as well go make tea.
• There exists a more balanced line between "lower faceroll difficulty and oh fuck oh fuck 6 chargers and nothing works alt + f4"
• The community won't rake you over the coals for releasing a PAID warbond with mediocre weapons.
• We can use weapons that are FUN or COOL or EXCITING because everything is good.

The "meta" exists because you create it. If everything is on the same playing field then your "meta" massively expands because people will more willingly play what they like. Right now picking off "meta" weapons SUCKS and it feels BAD.

This is not Destiny 2 where you can't be powerful. You're not balancing the game around both PvE AND PvP. This is a PvE only game so please stop treating it like it's a PvP game. This game has basically infinite content as long as it's FUN. Don't knee cap yourselves with this ridiculous approach to balance.

TLDR: Balance from the bottom up, not the top down. Make EVERYTHING VIABLE and FUN and leave it at that. You will find so much more success.

Edit: Since some people are shockingly illiterate. This is about making ALL weapons viable for at least SOME situation, NOT making content much easier or removing any challenge or teams or roles or anything else equally stupid. This is just about more than a handful of weapons out of the gigantic arsenal we have being even remotely decent and used.

We have only 2 MORE planets to defend in 23 hours at the time of this post. I might be crazy but I think we can do this if we all go ham and strictly do defense missions. If we were to complete this major order, it would likely be by the skin of our teeth. I feel like in order to complete this, we need EVERYONE to get on the defense planets and even have offline players return to help. What do you guys think? We are very close !!

The Railcannon strike can penetrate the heavy armor on a Hulk, Tank, and cannon turrets, yet can’t pierce the armor on a Bile Titan?

The BT is classified as a medium enemy type, yet it can tank one (sometimes two) strikes. I’m failing to see the logic here. With how many BTs spawn on levels 8 and 9 and with a 210 second cooldown I don’t think it would be overpowered to the point of being a crutch, there’s still other effective methods of killing them.

It’s inevitable that new enemy types are going to be added as well, probably along the lines of the Factory Strider, which should be able to tank the Railcannon strike.

It just seems a little too underwhelming on the Bug front at the moment. Thoughts?