Arrowhead CEO admits: Helldivers 2’s balancing isn’t what it should be

As the dust settles on Helldivers 2‘s biggest problem since day one, the community has zeroed back in on in-game issues once again. This time, the game’s balancing has been brought to bear thanks to the recent Eruptor nerf, and even the CEO agrees that Arrowhead’s been a tad heavy-handed.

Patch after patch, Arrowhead Games has been hard at work improving Helldivers 2‘s general stability and performance, but the balancing side of things has been less than stellar. When the issue was brought up with the CEO Johan Pilestedt, he agreed that “[Arrowhead Games has] gone too far in some areas.” He promised to talk to the balancing team about the approach to the matter at hand, adding that “It feels like every time someone finds something fun [in Helldivers 2], the fun is removed.”

Arrowhead CEO promises to rethink Helldivers 2’s balancing

For context, Helldivers 2 has had a bit of a tough streak when it comes to weapon nerfing. The game’s first major patch specifically brought down the exceedingly popular Railgun, and particularly potent post-launch outliers – such as the Quasar Cannon – have been subsequently nerfed as well. The Eruptor got taken down a fair few pegs, in particular, to the point that the weapon’s usefulness has been massively reduced, and this pile-up of nerfs coming in fast and hard has triggered a major discussion in the community about Helldivers 2‘s balancing practices.

It’s a good thing, of course, that the Arrowhead CEO appears to understand where community members are coming from. According to one of Pilestedt’s later posts, he believes that the sheer damage output of a weapon is weighed too heavily when deciding whether it necessitates a nerf or not.

Now, it’s worth remembering that Arrowhead has certainly delivered a bunch of buffs to weapons that needed them, too. A prominent recent example is the originally shoddy Adjudicator DMR, which received a lovely glow-up following player feedback. Yet, such instances are easily forgotten when some of the game’s most interesting gear gets nerfed back into submission if it performs particularly well.

In the case of the Eruptor, for example, the original version of the weapon came with a massive ammo supply and its rounds exploded into incredibly potent shrapnel, taking down entire groups of enemies with a single shot. This was offset with a plodding bolt-action cycle and a low handling stat, but it didn’t take long for Arrowhead to reduce the weapon’s ammo supply by 50%. Not long after, the weapon received its heaviest nerf yet, leaving it with all the negative aspects but also without the strong long-range damage potential, due to the removal of its shrapnel feature.

Pilestedt’s comments on Twitter suggest that this may change in the coming weeks and months. However, the new Polar Patriots Warbond’s gear appears to be rather disappointing without a need for any further nerfs. Presumably, this too will be alleviated down the line, but there’s no way of knowing just yet.

I myself have called for undocumented patch notes to be the norm in Helldivers 2, but it is self-apparent that weapon balancing is one of those things that shouldn’t be left out. Instead, that option should be kept around for major content additions, which is something Helldivers 2 has done remarkably well in the past. Hopefully, problematic balancing will soon give way to other such exciting live-service developments, but we’ll see what comes of Pilestedt’s commentary.