Helldivers 2’s Eruptor nerf was deliberate, after all

After the huge outburst of negativity due to Sony’s attempt to enforce a mandatory PSN account log-in for Helldivers 2, which ended on a higher note than you’d expect, it’s back to business as usual with a new balancing problem. This time, the beloved Eruptor got slammed with the nerf-hammer.

The Eruptor is, at its core, an extremely long-range bolt-action grenade launcher and the highlight of the Democratic Detonation Warbond. Or it was, at least. Up until the weapon’s sudden rebalance, it was an exceedingly potent sniper firing explosive blobs of shrapnel that could eviscerate large groups of enemies with a single round. Then, it was struck with an ammo supply nerf, and now Arrowhead settled on a surprisingly punishing decision to remove its shrapnel-throwing effect. This is, according to Arrowhead’s developers, entirely deliberate.

The Eruptor from Helldivers 2 got nerfed quite heavily, and it’s probably going to stay that way

Notably, the information that the nerf to Eruptor was deliberate and decidedly not a bug came from the person responsible for weapon balancing in Helldivers 2. On Discord, they explained that one of the biggest problems they were trying to fix was the onset of shrapnel instagibs caused by the weapon, which is fairly understandable. The removal of shrapnel, however, also appears to have done away with an “exploit that players used very consistently to deal more damage than [the developer] intended.” It’s not clear what, exactly, this exploit is, but it is gone now, and fans of the Eruptor are not thrilled.

While the reasoning is perfectly sensible, Arrowhead’s nerfed Eruptor is nowhere near as potent as it used to be pre-nerf. As it stands, the weapon cannot one-shot even medium-tier enemies, and its slow bolt-action, small magazine size, and overall low ammo pool make it a hindrance to carry into missions.

Aside from the problems brought about by the nerf itself, there’s an additional issue to consider, wherein a different Arrowhead developer previously said that the Eruptor was bugged. This led to people being hopeful that the issue would be resolved in a more satisfying manner, only for these hopes to be dashed away later on by the Discord post featured above.

It’s not a great situation, then, and it doesn’t seem that the Eruptor will be getting buffed back up to compensate for its many shortcomings. Those who had hoped for a softer nerf, like the one that was dispatched to the Quasar Cannon, are bound to be disappointed with this development.

Further, the Eruptor was one of the main reasons to purchase the Democratic Detonation Premium Warbond. The explosive crossbow isn’t anything to write home about as it currently stands, either, leaving the recently buffed Adjudicator and the grenade launcher sidearm as the go-to options for this particular DLC.

This may also be cause for concern for those who are looking to splurge on the Polar Patriots Warbond, which is coming out very, very soon. It’s possible that some of its weapons may come out overtuned as well, only for Arrowhead to be heavy-handed with balancing later on, after players had already invested Super Credits and Medals into unlocking them. At the very least, at least the community is back to arguing over balancing, rather than out-of-game concerns, right?