The player base for “Helldivers 2” has skyrocketed in the last two weeks thanks to a recent update that gave the community what they had long asked for. 

Since August, “Helldivers 2” was on a slow popularity decline as players grew tired of constant hindrances to weapon capabilities, consistent crashing issues and somewhat repetitive and frustrating gameplay elements. 

New crashing issues and questionable changes in previous updates, such as the “Escalation of Freedom” update, were far from beneficial and only served to not only sour the connection between Arrowhead Game Studios and the community but also damage the love die-hard players held for the game. 

Thanks to the hard work and dedication of Arrowhead as well as the critical and constructive feedback of the community, the game would recover and become far better than it has been the past few months.

Released last month, update 1.001.100 introduced massive changes to the game’s enemies and weapons as well as improving the game’s overall stability and completely reworking the armor values of certain enemies. 

Arrowhead has had a history of diminishing the effectiveness of fan-favorite weapons to the disappointment of some players. 

Some changes to weapons such as the “R-36 Eruptor,” a weapon that was using the same shrapnel as the “Orbital Airburst Strike” stratagem, and the “ARC-3 Arc Thrower,” a weapon that would crash a player’s game when it was fired, were necessary to stabilize the game and only temporary. 

However, adjustments to weapons such as the “SG-225IE Breaker Incendiary” and the “FLAM-40 Flamethrower,” were heavily questioned and criticized as they were popular weapons due to their effectiveness and reliability. 

The patch saw several positive changes to both beloved, fan-favorite weapons and weapons that the community had frequently requested be improved, such as the “AR-23P Liberator Penetrator,” the “AR-23A Liberator Carbine,” the “CB-9 Exploding Crossbow” and the “RS-422 Railgun. 

Thanks to the changes to enemy armor, other weapons, such as the “Recoilless Rifle,” “LAS-99 Quasar Cannon” and the “Expendable Anti-Tank” were inadvertently buffed and they can deal with heavy enemies more easily. 

A player by the name of “RAWHOTDOG” with 240 hours in the game posted a positive review on the day of the update letting his opinion be known about the positivity. 

“Listen they messed up a couple of times but they manage to bounce back game is amazing,” RAWHOTDOG said. “As of 9-17-2024 the update is amazing guns finally feel like they have some to firepower to them will play this game until it servers shut down which is hopefully never.” 

Enemies such as the “Rocket Devastator” and “Automaton Gunship” had the number of rockets they could fire reduced and also received a reload animation to reduce an excessive number of rockets from being fired at a time.

The community response to the update has been overwhelmingly positive, proven by the massive spike in players returning to the game and positive reviews the day the update was released. 

A user on Steam with over 220 hours in the game by the name of “Reishimaru” posted their review on Sept. 18 highly encouraging others to purchase the game and that, despite its previous issues, it is well worth the purchase. 

“Arrowhead Studios has truly proven their resilience with Helldivers 2,” Reishimaru said. “While their journey hasn’t been without its lows, it’s clear that the highs they’ve reached with this game more than make up for it. The studio’s dedication, creativity and passion shine through in every aspect of their work, making this latest release a standout success.”