The Helldivers 2 balance patch 01.000.300 just dropped, with nerfs and buffs to a variety of weapons and stratagems. Full breakdown here!
Helldivers 2 has just dropped balance patch 01.000.300. This newest patch to the popular PvE game includes a long list of nerfs, buffs, and bug fixes. These include changes to fire damage, a small buff to heavy armor, and another way to salute Super Earth!
We’ve broken down all the major changes in these patch notes, including which nerfs and buffs you’ll want to keep an eye on in our handy chart below.
Table of contents
Major changes in Helldivers 2’s balance patch
Patch 01.000.300 is a pretty long list of changes, but here are the highlights on what’ll impact your fight for democracy the most.
First and foremost, Helldivers 2 has reduced burning damage by 15% in this balance patch. This is great news for any Helldivers currently being chased by fire tornados on Hellmire or getting jumped by Hulks and their absurdly long flamethrower range.
An additional welcome change is that now players can disable automatic climbing. This means that you won’t accidently climb up on your supply drops while trying to grab an item.
In a small buff to heavier armor, armors with an armor rating higher than 100 now reduce damage on headshots. This makes the choice of lumbering around in heavy armor behind your teammates slightly more viable.
Don’t let this increased armor stat get you too comfortable. The patch notes added another small change that will likely create higher player death numbers. Shots fired at heavily armored enemies (i.e. Chargers, Hulks, Bile Titans) will now ricochet back at the Helldiver who fired.
Of course, we saved the most important change for last. Helldivers will now properly salute for Super Earth before entering their Hellpods at the beginning of every mission to “ensure maximum democratic readiness”.
Well, it’s one of the biggest changes, anyway.
Enemy patrols will now spawn more
The actual biggest change in Helldivers 2’s balance patch that is causing a small amount of player outrage is the new spawn rates of enemy patrols. The patch notes state:
“Patrol spawning has been increased when where are fewer than 4 players. The fewer the players the bigger the change. For 4 player mission there will be no change compared to before. The biggest noticeable change will be for solo players at higher difficulties.”
The community response to this change, which seems to punish people who want to play with fewer people or simply don’t want to match with randoms, has been mostly negative. A Reddit post that seems to sum up the community feeling is titled, “Increasing patrol spawns for smaller squads is a dick move.”
The developers at Arrowhead defended the new patrol spawns and explained why the new system makes sense:
“We unintendedly had non-linear scaling of the patrol spawns so they didn’t spawn as often as they should have when less than 4 players. The intention is that 1 player has 1/4th of the patrols compared to 4 players, but it used to be that they had 1/6th.”
This means that solo players were only encountering about 17% of patrols, but now they’ll encounter 25%, which seems fair. The devs stated that these changes will help maps “feel less empty” when only one or two players are playing.
Helldivers 2 Weapon and Stratagem Changes: Nerfs and buffs
Here are all the buff and nerfs to weapons and stratagems in the Helldivers 2 01.000.300 Patch Notes! We’ve neatly categorized them into buff and nerf categories below. That way you can tell at a glance what happened to your favorite weapon!
| Weapon/Stratagem | Buff | Nerf | Neutral Change |
| CB-9 Exploding Crossbow | Muzzle velocity increased, increased number of magazines received from resupply from 6 to 8 | Slightly smaller explosion, increased stagger, decreased number of maximum mags from 12 to 8 | N/A |
| LAS-99 Quasar Cannon | N/A | Increased recharge time by 5 seconds | N/A |
| BR-14 Adjudicator | Reduced recoil, increased maximum mags from 6 to 8, increased number of magazines received from resupply from 6 to 8 | N/A | Full auto is now the default fire mode |
| LAS-98 Laser Cannon | Slightly increased damage | Slightly reduced damage versus large volume bodies | N/A |
| SG-8P Punisher Plasma | 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 | Decreased maximum mags from 12 to 8 | Now placed in the energy weapons category |
| ARC-12 Blitzer | Increased shots per minute from 30 to 45 | N/A | Now placed in the energy weapons category |
| R-36 Eruptor | N/A | Decreased number of maximum mags from 12 to 6, explosion damage drops off slightly faster | N/A |
| LAS-16 Sickle | N/A | Decreased amount of magazines from 6 down to 3 | N/A |
| LAS-5 Scythe | Increased damage from 300 to 350 | Decreased max number of magazines from 6 down to 4 | N/A |
| RS-422 Railgun | Increased armor penetration in both safe mode and unsafe mode, stagger force slightly reduced | N/A | N/A |
H2 Weapons and Stratagems: Buff and Nerfs continued
| Weapon/Stratagem | Buff | Nerf | Neutral Change |
| MG-101 Heavy Machine Gun | N/A | N/A | Third person crosshair enabled |
| 63CS Diligence Counter Sniper | Damage increased from 128 to 140 | N/A | Ergonomics improved |
| R-63 Diligence | Damaged increased from 112 to 125 | N/A | N/A |
| P-19 Redeemer | N/A | Slight increase in recoil | N/A |
| P-2 Peacemaker | Increased damage from 60 to 75 | N/A | N/A |
| P-8 Senator | Increased damage from 150 to 175, speedloader added when reloading on an empty cylinder – speeds up reload on empty considerably | N/A | N/A |
| LAS-7 Dagger | Increased damage from 150 to 200 | N/A | N/A |
| AR-19 Liberator | Damage increased from 55 to 60 | N/A | N/A |
| AR-23C Liberator Consussive | Damage increased from 55 to 65 | N/A | N/A |
| JAR-5 Dominator | N/A | Damage decreased from 300 to 275 | N/A |
| AX/AR Guard Dog | N/A | Decreased damage by 30% | N/A |
| RL-77 Airburst Rocket Launcher | Airburst Rocket Launcher will no longer detonate when shot near stratagems (HMG turret, Sentries, Resupplies) and other Helldivers | N/A | Reduced proximity radius |
| A/MG-43 Machinegun Sentry | Increased health to match other Sentries | N/A | N/A |
| A/ARC-3 Tesla Tower | Increased health by 33% | N/A | N/A |
| FAF-14 Spear | N/A | N/A | Added reload stage reload after the spent missile had been discarded |
Those are all the major changes in these patch notes for Helldivers 2! There were a lot of small bug fixes and quality of life changes as well. Those can be found in the full patch notes.
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