60 Day Timeline - Progress Update

It’s been a couple of weeks since we committed to our 60-day plan, and our team has been hard at work refining the gameplay experience, addressing your concerns by doing in-depth reviews and adjustment of various systems, from weapon balancing and enemy behavior to the overall game mechanics. We are fully committed to ensuring Helldivers 2 meets the high standards we all expect. We see the steam reviews and we hear you loud and clear.

We’re excited to share more details about our upcoming update, which will include significant changes aimed at refining and improving your experience in Helldivers 2. This includes:

• We are reworking Armor Penetration, Anti-Tank weapons and enemy armor and health values. As a key part of the rework we have done an initial balancing pass on over 30 weapons and stratagems.
  
• We are overhauling a number of different enemies to make them feel more rewarding to kill when you use the proper tools to handle them but ensure they still feel formidable. Enemy bots, including Hulks, will have lower armor, and the number of rockets fired by enemies like the Devastator and Gunship will be limited, making combat more balanced. The armor values of particularly tough bug enemies like the Charger, Impaler, and Bile Titan will also be reduced.
  
• Weapons such as the Autocannon, Heavy Machine Gun, and Anti-Material Rifle will be more effective, providing greater loadout versatility. We are also working towards additional improvements for the flamethrower weapons.
  
• We’re taking this opportunity to consider new player fantasies and design goals for these weapons and stratagems based on the feedback we’ve received and the trends we’re observing during gameplay.

Our next update, containing all these changes and more details, is scheduled to go live on September 17th.

We value your feedback and are always looking for ways to improve our community engagement. Stay tuned for more updates in the coming weeks as we work together to make Helldivers 2 the best it can be. We’ll be back on the 17th of September with more details.

FAQ:

Q: But what does a balancing pass entail, and how are you conducting it?
Our design team led by our Chief Creative Officer, Johan Pilestedt, analyzes player feedback, internal and external playtests, gameplay data, and the original design goals for each weapon and stratagem. This process allows us to identify discrepancies—such as weapons that are underperforming or overperforming—and make precise adjustments. The goal is to ensure that each weapon and stratagem feels powerful, responsive, and fun to use, while also fitting into the broader gameplay ecosystem.

Q. What about the beta testing you mentioned previously?
We have conducted closed beta tests for the last two weekends. We’re starting small to ensure everything runs smoothly before expanding. They have been a testbed for the program and we intend to expand it in the future and invite a wider variety of testers to playtest our upcoming updates. It will take some time to get the infrastructure in order, but the intent is that these tests will find issues and missteps before we release them to the player base at large, providing a better experience for all players.

Q: When do we actually see this stuff go up?
Our next update, containing all these changes and more details, is scheduled to go live on September 17th.