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Helldivers 2 has been one of the most unexpected successes of recent times, becoming Sony’s biggest-selling launch of all time, beating out the likes of God of War Ragnarok. Despite its success, some dark clouds have been hanging over the game recently, from the PSN controversy to the excessive nerfing of weapons. The game is still popular but has slowly been seeing players dip from the game, and it feels like Arrowhead Game Studios is at a crucial point where they can save the game or see it begin to spiral and lose traction.
A Helldivers 2 developer known as Evil-Bosse took to the official Discord server to discuss that the team is currently working on balancing the game due to the nerfing that most weapons have seen over the past few weeks, saying “Our CEO is doing a major internal push on balancing, a lot of meetings and a lot of chats going on.”
This comes after the Arrowhead Game Studios CEO Johan Pilestedt took to X to state that the team had gone “too far in some areas” when it comes to weapons balancing saying,
“Will talk to the team about the approach to balance. It feels like every time someone finds something fun, the fun is removed.”
Over the past month or so we have seen many new weapons come to the game that players have enjoyed, such as the R-36 Eruptor, only for them to get nerfed in subsequent updates. Many players have been left confused as to why nerfing weapons and making everything more equal is such a strong focus in a PVE game. It is understandable that weapons be more balanced in PVP games such as Fortnite and Call of Duty, to prevent one weapon from becoming too overpowered so players are at a disadvantage if they don’t use it. Instead, developers want players to have a chance at winning regardless of their own play style.
But, when it comes to a PVE game like Helldivers 2, having an overpowered weapon that is suited to a certain enemy type isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Of course, the developers don’t want 80% of players to be using the same weapon, so keeping them somewhat balanced makes sense. But, rather than buffing bad weapons to bring them more in line and give them all use cases, Arrowhead Game Studios has instead chosen to make most weapons weaker than what the enemies have, making players outclassed by the NPCs. This coupled with the increased difficulty seen in recent updates, especially when playing with less than a full squad, has led to a lot of burnout in the community, which the recent PSN controversy hasn’t helped with as it has led some players to step away from the game for the time being.
It is not ideal to have some players step away from the game, especially with the current Major Order calling for the decommissioning of 2 billion Automatons, with players still needing to take out just under 700 million over the next day if they want to succeed and unlock the new MD-17 Anti-Tank Mines. To play your part and ensure victory against the robot army, we highly recommend checking out our Helldivers 2 best weapons guide and best armor guide to give you and your squad the greatest chance at success.
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