Helldivers 2 PSA: Yes, if you emote while you’re falling you reduce damage

Helldivers 2 has its share of quirks and problems, and many of them hinder the player experience, such as its major PC performance issues. But sometimes, players manage to discover something that benefits players, and this one is sure to save thousands of lives.

U/21471824781 took to Reddit to share an interesting discovery. If you emote while falling, you don’t take as much damage as if you don’t.

Attention Helldivers, using an emote mid-fall may SAVE YOUR LIFE!
byu/21471824781 inHelldivers

In the video, they jump off rocks of varying heights and compared damage when using and not using an emote. It appears that you only take approximately 50% of the damage while emoting and can survive falls from incredibly high ledges, with some being 50+ feet.

U/ThisGuyHere_Again explained why they think this works and the physics with the character model that causes it not to take too much damage.

“It seems the primary factor is how it repositions your body and the center of gravity for the game’s physics. When you dive and flail, you seem a lot more likely to land on your head and, knowing AH, even impact damage can score headshots. Emotes meanwhile make you tumble more with their stiff postures, increasing the likelihood of landing primarily on one or more “Non-head” limbs, which not only generally take less damage but are also probably more likely to confuse the undoubtedly spaghetti code impact calculations as they “crumple” more on impact and spread out the damage to multiple parts more often.”

With the current Major Orders focusing on the Automatons, this trick may come in handy, especially when facing some of the larger enemies such as Devastators, which can use their rocket launchers to send you flying in the sky. I also wonder whether someone will be able to figure out a strategy to ragdoll themselves far enough to travel across large bodies of water and then use an emote to survive the impact. This could help to save a lot of time when traversing larger maps, or it could be used as an escape tactic to gain distance from your enemies.

It is unlikely that this is an intended mechanic, but it will help to not die from being rag dolled, or when the game spawns you on top of a mountain. Hopefully, Arrowhead Game Studios doesn’t patch this as it is one of the few useful unintended mechanics in Helldivers 2. But if they do, then players will still have a while to have fun with it as the team is currently on vacation over the summer. That doesn’t mean that the content stops though, as players are currently defending the new X-45 jungle planet to unlock the Commando Rocket Launcher. With less than one day left, SEAF needs to come together to eradicate the robot army once and for all. To ensure victory, we highly recommend checking out our Helldivers 2 best weapons guide and best armor guide so you can be equipped to serve Liber-tea to your enemies and emote to safety.