“The negative mission modifiers need to be replaced” Helldivers 2 players want this mechanic removed

At higher difficulties, Helldivers 2 features mission modifiers to make them even more punishing than they would be otherwise. These modifiers will push players to their limits and only the best of the best survive. Unfortunately, many of the modifiers end up making the game less enjoyable to play rather than adding an extra challenge, and many players want them removed in favor of new ones that add a challenge rather than punish.

U/Danubinmage64 took to Reddit to discuss the mission modifiers that are present in the harder difficulties of Helldivers 2. “These modifiers don’t do anything, they just nerf the main thing that we are supposed to be relying on. It’s not a matter of it making the game too hard or anything like that. The shrieker and gunship modifiers are good because instead of nerfing the player, they add an additional challenge that you can and should build around,” they said.

In the past, these have faced controversy due to some of them just making Helldivers 2 less fun rather than more challenging, which led to one being removed and took away one Stratagem slot. Instead, u/Danubinmage64 gave some suggestions for new mission modifiers that will instead add a challenge to the game rather than making it frustrating.

1. “More of X enemy type. This could be bile titans, more stalker nests, tons of bile spewers (having the green goo enemies could itself be a modifier), on the bots it could be more fabricators or just make the basic guys super common. This would be easy to implement and allow the player to prepare to take down specific enemies.
2. Longer extraction time: to maybe 3-4 minutes, I think the longer call in strategem did this, but I think as a lone modifier it would be interesting.
3. More Spore towers: The spore towers are super common and also cover up your map until destroyed. In my opinion this should replace the current modifier that just removes enemy radar, as this has counterclaim while the former doesn’t.
4. 3-5 less minutes mission: This might make the mission more frantic and force the player to be just that much more efficient. Maybe as compensation the map is a bit smaller and there are slightly more samples per area.”

Other users shared their thoughts and also gave suggestions, including u/Master_Ch3f who noted that “You can’t tell us that primary weapons suck on purpose and to “use your stratagems” when your main way of adding difficulty is not allowing us to use a critical part of gameplay.”

With the frustrating modifier now removed, most players are happy with the current ones, so these could be great additions to add more variety as modifiers, as suggested by u/Bonkface who said ” I do agree with your suggested modifiers – even if I don’t want to see current ones removed, added variation would dilute the overreliance of nerfed stratagems.”

U/Winzors suggested that the Helldivers 2 “Modifiers should be normal weather (rain, fog, dust, etc) disastrous weather (fire tornadoes, meteor storms, earthquakes, etc) and enemy entrenchment type stuff (more spores/jammers, Shrieker/airship patrols, etc),” while also noting that “Increased call down time is an interesting variable though, I don’t mind that one, should scale with the amount of jammers/spore towers on the map.”

Mission modifiers begin at level 5, but most of the more difficult ones, such as the Gunship spawns, begin on level 6. If you play on Challenging or below you won’t have to deal with these. You can also check the effect of a specific mission by pressing C on your keyboard when highlighting the mission. To help you prepare for your next mission with an active modifier, we highly recommend checking out our Helldivers 2 best weapons guide and best armor guide so you can be suitably equipped to take down whatever stands between you and democracy.