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The most recent update for Helldivers 2 has been a massive success thanks to all of the heavily known about buffs as well as other listed changes that have improved the game without as much recognition. Just recently though, Arrowhead revealed a nerf that wasn’t mentioned in the patch notes, along with some other changes. Not mentioning a nerf can lead to grand conspiracies about why it wasn’t mentioned, but the Helldivers 2 community manager has explained why not every change is listed in patch notes through either intent or by accident.
You can still check out the update 01.001.100 patch notes to see all of the documented massive buffs. As for the “stealth nerf” not listed, the HMG angle and durable damage was decreased from 50 to 35. Following the revelation of this nerf, fans have called for it to be reverted or for the HMG magazine size to be buffed.
There were other changes and gaffs revealed by Arrowhead as not listed in the patch notes such as the railgun AP bonus getting removed from charging and the laser canon not cooling down faster. It is the nerf to the HMG that has had the biggest impact though, and there is an understanding it should’ve been included in the patch notes. However, the developer has explained why not every change is listed.
Helldivers 2 explains why not every change is listed in patch notes
We only know about the undocumented changes in the patch notes that were recently revealed by Arrowhead. It’s possible there are more floating about, but it’s likely these are so miniscule that they haven’t been noticed by the Helldivers 2 community yet.
On the series’ official Discord, fans had been discussing changes not included in the patch notes. This resulted in a debate as to whether undocumented changes were simply through human error or if Arrowhead are “not dumb” and purposefully hid a few nerfs.
In response to the debate, community manager, Twinbeard, chimed in that he has “mentioned internally again the importance of us [Arrowhead] improving our process to get as many changes as humanly possible into our patch notes – to inform players, and to avoid having discussions about us hiding stuff (which we have no reason to)”.
Twinbeard also admitted “I tried to get all the changes I’d heard of that weren’t already in our PN, but there may still be stuff missing”.
As for why not everything is listed in patch notes, Twinbeard explained, “There’s a lot of really small stuff happening, and I know a lot of devs leave stuff like that out simply because it’s miniscule and takes resources to write, polish and handle patch notes. The question is ofc where to draw the line in that case”.
Lastly, the community manager stated it’s difficult “keeping track of changes, documenting them, which version is which, what change affects other changes”.
It seems pretty clear there was no malicious intent behind hiding the nerf to the HMG along with other undocumented changes recently unearthed by Arrowhead. The explanation from Twinbeard is sound, and it’s important to note that patch notes in every other multiplayer game don’t list every single change either.
For more Helldivers 2, check out our guide to the best warbonds ranked, along with the best stratagems and best throwables. We also have a guide to the best weapons, and, if you’re coming back to HD2 for the first time in a long while, we have a bunch of tips and tricks to help you get reaccustomed to the battlefield.
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