Helldivers 2 Update Today: Charger Nerfs & Spawn Rate Change

With so much new Helldivers 2 content on the horizon, including the recently introduced Mech Suits, as well as the Cutting Edge Warbond, the game is going to continue being the premiere choice for players seeking a PvE co-op shooter. While players have been excited for all of these new additions, the last patch did introduce some new pain points in the game, with a huge increase in 'Heavy' enemies, such as the Bile Titan and Charger, especially on higher difficulties. This coupled with the nerfs to the Railgun and Breaker, have made the game significantly harder and many players have been waiting for another balance patch to make the experience a lot smoother.

Arrowhead Game Studios just dropped patch 01.000.102, which aims to reduce the spawn rate of these 'Heavy' enemy types, while also giving players more opportunities to deal with them. Here is the full list of changes coming to Helldivers 2 with patch 01.000.102!

• Enemies
• Gameplay
• Fixes
• Known Issues

Helldivers 2 Full Patch Notes 01.000.102

Patch 01.000.102 has already been deployed, and it comes with a ton of different changes, the highlights of which are the adjustments to the spawn rates of the 'Heavy' Terminid enemies, which are the Bile Titan and Charger. The developers have stated that they aim to maintain the same level of difficulty while reducing the spawn rates of these enemies, so we can expect more of the smaller enemy types, such as Hunters and Warriors, to be present.

The Chargers are also going to be a lot more vulnerable, with the health of their heads being significantly reduced. The Electronic Countermeasures operation modifier has also been temporarily removed, as it was not very fun to deal with, especially on higher difficulties. Other quality-of-life changes, as well as some fixes to the many instances of crashing have are also present in this update. Here is the full list of changes coming to Helldivers 2 with patch 01.000.102!

Today's patch is dealing with the spawn rate of heavily armored Terminid enemies as well as the possible play against them. It also contains some fixes to UI elements and crash fixes.

Balancing

Enemies:

• The amount of heavily armored targets that spawn on higher difficulties, especially for Terminids, have been a big discussion point online and internally. The intent is for groups to have to bring some form of anti-tank capability but not to the degree previously needed.
• To that end we have reduced the spawn rate of Chargers and Bile Titans on difficulties 7 and up. In addition we have reduced the risk of spawn spikes of Chargers and Bile Titans.
• Please note that we have changed the distribution of enemy types, not reduced difficulty. Expect other enemy types to appear in greater numbers instead.
• We are humbled by the community's ability to find things like Chargers “leg meta” in our game, however spending your heavy anti tank weapons on legs instead of the obvious weak point seems counter to expectation.
• We are not changing anything regarding the Charger’s legs, we are however lowering the health of the Charger’s head. It should now be at a point where a well placed shot from a Recoilless Rifle or EAT-17 instantly kills a charger.
• Together with the unfortunately undocumented change of last patch that increased the armor penetration ability of less well placed shots for EAT-17s and Recoilless Rifle shots, Chargers should now be easier to handle by well equipped groups.

Gameplay

• "Electronic Countermeasures" operation modifier, which had a chance of giving you a random stratagem instead of the one you input, has been removed in order to be reworked, and will be reintroduced in a future iteration. We found that this modifier wasn’t communicated clearly enough and overall caused more frustration than excitement with the way it was currently implemented. This change was made in 1.000.100 but was unintentionally omitted from the patch notes.

Fixes

• Fixed missing text on several HUD / UI elements.
• Fixed several subtitle / VO mismatches in the news videos.
• Fixed various crashes that occurred mid-gameplay and when deploying to missions.

Known Issues

• Game crashes when attempting to use a stim while inside an Exosuit.
• Pink artifacts may appear in the sky when setting off large explosions.
• Automaton Dropship seemingly disappears and slides in after being shot down.
• Shots from arc-based weapons may not count towards kills in post-mission stats.
• Players cannot unfriend other players befriended via friend code.
• Cross-platform friend invites might not show up in the friend requests tab.
• Players may be unable to select loadout or return to ship when joining a multiplayer game session via PS5 Activity Card.
• The Exosuit can destroy itself with rockets if it fires while turning.
• Text chat box display is obstructed by the cinematic letterboxing during extraction.

That covers the full list of changes in the new 01.000.102 update for Helldivers 2. All of the changes to the spawn rates of Bile Titans and Chargers, as well as the health nerfs are going to make dealing with these enemies a lot more manageable in higher difficulties. With the new Cutting Edge Warbond coming in just a few days, the game is looking to be in an amazing state going forward. For more Helldivers 2 news and guides, make sure to check out the rest of our website!