Arrowhead Game Studios released Patch 1.000.102 for Helldivers 2 on Tuesday, March 12, 2024. The patch was specifically targeted at “dealing with the spawn rate of heavily armored Terminid enemies”. However, it also contained crash and UI elements fixes.
Players of Helldivers 2 have bitterly complained about the spawn rate of Bile Titans and Chargers, especially on difficulties 7 and above. With the new update, Arrowhead has “reduced the risk of spawn spikes of Chargers and Bile Titans”.
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Instead, other enemy types will appear in greater numbers. In other words, what Arrowhead has done is not to make the higher levels less difficult but to redistribute the kinds of enemies that players have to battle.
“We are humbled by the community’s ability to find things like Chargers’ “leg meta” in our game, however spending your heavy anti-tank weapons on legs instead of the obvious weak point seems counter to expectation,” Arrowhead said in the patch note.
“We are not changing anything regarding the Charger’s legs, we are however lowering the health of the Charger’s head. It should now be at a point where a well-placed shot from a Recoilless Rifle or EAT-17 instantly kills a charger.”
In terms of gameplay, Arrowhead has now temporarily removed the “Electronic Countermeasures” operation modifier it introduced to the game in patch 1.000.100—but was omitted from the patch note. What that did was to give players a random stratagem instead of the one they input.
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According to Arrowhead, that gameplay element will be reworked and reintroduced in the future because its purpose was not properly communicated and “caused more frustration than excitement with the way it was currently implemented”. Arrowhead has identified other issues that will likely be fixed in future patches.
Arrowhead confirms the addition of ‘flying bugs’ in Helldivers 2
Although it was not mentioned in the patch note, players started seeing flying bugs called Shriekers in the game. The studio’s CEO and Helldivers 2 creative director Johan Pilestedt even joked that bugs can’t fly and that the claim was “propaganda from bug sympathizers that want to brainwash good people”.
I've heard rumors of flying bugs in @helldivers2. I want to officially refute such preposterous claims.
Everyone knows that "Bugs can't fly".
And I'm not alone in thinking this. The Ministry of Truth agrees that this is propaganda from bug sympathizers that want to brainwash…
— Pilestedt (@Pilestedt) March 12, 2024
However, hours later, more tweets from Helldivers 2 official X handle confirmed the presence of Shriekers in the game. Arrowhead seems to have found a way of leaving out what we would call the element of surprise from their patch notes and simply letting players discover them.
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Breaking: Helldivers To Permanently Contain Bugs#StrohmannNews pic.twitter.com/QLRQbtQxov
— HELLDIVERS™ 2 (@helldivers2) March 13, 2024
The Shriekers are large bat-like creatures that emit high-pitched screeches as they nosedive on players and slash them with their talons. They are currently found in maps where a Shrieker Lair is a side quest. Players have shared footage of their encounter with the flying enemies of democracy.
Helldivers 2 voted Players’ Choice winner
PlayStation has announced the Players’ Choice winner for February 2024, and it was a massive win for Helldivers 2. “It looks like everyone did their part to secure Super Earth’s victory,” said O’Dell Harmon Jr., Sony Interactive Entertainment’s content communication specialist.
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At the end of every month, the PlayStation.blog creates a poll where players get to vote for the best new game released that month for the PlayStation console. At the end of the voting period, they tally the votes and announce the winner. Some of the top Player’s Choice winners will be showcased on the PlayStation Store throughout the year.
The games that are put up for vote are decided by the PlayStation Blog and PlayStation Store editorial teams. Remakes with “large-scale rebuilds” qualify for the polls but re-released games do not qualify.
Have you encountered Shriekers in Helldivers 2? What was your first impression about them? Share your thoughts in the comment box below.
