New Helldivers 2 Patch Makes Chargers Easier To Kill, If You're Brave Enough

A new patch for Helldivers 2 has gone live and has introduced some big changes for some of the toughest Terminid enemies in the game. After Bile Titans and Chargers became significantly more challenging to battle following a recent balance update in Helldivers 2--and a nerf for the magic trio combo of the Breaker shotgun, Railgun, and shield generator backpack--Arrowhead has fine-tuned the spawn rate of these titanic monsters.

These Terminids had begun popping up in greater numbers during missions on higher difficulty levels, leveling teams as they shrugged off attacks with their mostly bulletproof design, but Arrowhead says that this "spawn spike" has been addressed. "We have reduced the spawn rate of Chargers and Bile Titans on difficulties 7 and up," Arrowhead explained in the Helldivers 2 patch notes. "In addition, we have reduced the risk of spawn spikes of Chargers and Bile Titans."

Those gigantic bugs are still dangerous enemies to deal with even when they're fewer in number, but for Chargers, Arrowhead has made that armored enemy easier to deal with if you're prepared to stand your ground. Chargers now have reduced health on their heads, and a well-placed shot from a Recoilless Rifle or an EAT-17 rocket delivered directly to the noggin will be an instant kill.

Helldivers 2 has continued to evolve since it launched last month on PS5 and PC, and recent changes have seen mechs added to the game after players completed a challenging campaign to unlock them.

Helldivers 2 Patch 1.000.102

Enemies

• The amount of heavily armored targets that spawn on higher difficulties, especially for Terminids, has been a big discussion point online and internally. The intent is for groups to have to bring some form of anti-tank capability but not to the degree previously needed.
• To that end, we have reduced the spawn rate of Chargers and Bile Titans on difficulties 7 and up. In addition, we have reduced the risk of spawn spikes of Chargers and Bile Titans.
• Please note that we have changed the distribution of enemy types, not reduced difficulty. Expect other enemy types to appear in greater numbers instead.
• 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.
• 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.
• Together with the unfortunately undocumented change of last patch that increased the armor penetration ability of less well-placed shots for EAT-17s and Recoilless Rifle shots, Chargers should now be easier to handle by well-equipped groups.

Gameplay

• "Electronic Countermeasures" operation modifier, which had a chance of giving you a random stratagem instead of the one you input, has been removed in order to be reworked, and will be reintroduced in a future iteration. We found that this modifier wasn't communicated clearly enough and overall caused more frustration than excitement with the way it was currently implemented. This change was made in 1.000.100 but was unintentionally omitted from the patch notes.

Fixes

• Fixed missing text on several HUD / UI elements.
• Fixed several subtitle / VO mismatches in the news videos.
• Fixed various crashes that occurred mid-gameplay and when deploying to missions.

Known Issues

• Game crashes when attempting to use a stim while inside an Exosuit.
• Pink artifacts may appear in the sky when setting off large explosions.
• Automaton Dropship seemingly disappears and slides in after being shot down.
• Shots from arc-based weapons may not count toward kills in post-mission stats.
• Players cannot unfriend other players befriended via friend code.
• Cross-platform friend invites might not show up in the friend requests tab.
• Players may be unable to select loadout or return to ship when joining a multiplayer game session via PS5 Activity Card.
• The Exosuit can destroy itself with rockets if it fires while turning.
• Text chat box display is obstructed by the cinematic letterboxing during extraction.
• Some people are unable to accept friend requests. This is mostly an issue with cross platform