Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead has followed up last week’s release of the game’s major balance update and premium war bundle with a new patch that applies a long list of fixes.
The highlight is the overhaul of the Spear support strategy, which has suffered from all sorts of issues since the co-op shooter launched on PC and PlayStation 5 earlier this year. What should be a reliable monster of a weapon has been unstable for so long because its anti-tank homing missile failed to properly track locked targets.
According to the 1.000.402 patch notes, there is a fix for spears not targeting multiple entities (spawners, compound objects, etc.). This should encourage more players to bring spears to the battlefield.
And here’s another useful fix: Hellbombs are now called down facing the player rather than away from the player. Players are used to Hellbombs facing away from them, so there will be a bit of a learning curve with this one.
Arrowhead also updated the list of known issues and outlined what the studio is working on with upcoming fixes. Note: The Bile Titan sometimes doesn’t take head damage, and the Charger’s stock doesn’t take damage from explosions. What an ass!
Last week was a big one for Helldivers 2 and Arrowhead recently revealed that the studio is gearing up to “make more and better things” in the long run. in initial post on redditnew CEO Shams Jorjani, who recently replaced Arrowhead’s previous CEO and now current creative director Johan Pilestedtsaid that the studio had to adjust to the huge success that Helldivers 2 brought to the company.
Helldivers 2 is the fastest selling PlayStation game of all time, moving a whopping 12 million copies in just 12 weeks since its launch earlier this year. Amidst the huge revenue generated by Helldivers 2, Arrowhead itself has suffered a series of crises, including issues with its launch server and, more recently, a battle with Sony itself over the console maker’s controversial attempt to force Steam players to link their account to the PlayStation Network.
Helldivers 2 1.000.402 patch notes:
Overview
For this patch, we have made improvements and changes in the following areas:
- Improving the quality of life
- Crash fixes
- General bug fixes
Repairs
Crash
- Fixed various crashes that occasionally occurred when changing settings.
- Fixed potential crash or damaged font texture when changing language
- Fixed a bug that could occur after exiting a mission.
- Fixed a bug that occurs when opening a social menu with more than 100 friends. As a result, we’ve also limited friends list visibility to 100. You’ll remain friends with anyone over 100, but you may not see them if they’re offline.
- Fixed a crash when opening the social menu and many blocked players and/or friend requests.
- Fixed crash when minimizing after changing full screen mode.
- Fixed a rare crash that could occur when collecting gear.
- Fix crash when client interacts with terminal in wait state after host migration.
- Fix crash related to minefields.
Various fixes
- Fix dodge and prone issues.
- Fix not being able to get up when using ballistic shield.
- Recoilless reload speed fixed.
- Fixed an issue where users could not write a description on the console when reporting a player.
- Fixes vehicle preview not showing in Warbonds when fast browsing the catalog.
- Fix Spear not targeting multiple entities (spawners, compound objects, etc.).
- Sentinels have a higher destruction value, so most explosions will not destroy them immediately regardless of the amount of damage.
- Fixed a bug that caused the operation progress to be lost when kicking due to inactivity
- “Remove Friend” and “Block Player” buttons are now a hold to confirm instead of a single click.
- Fix a bug where dying tried to enter ADS.
- Fix a soft lock if you receive an interactive emote while holding a grenade.
- Fix projectile aiming inaccuracies in ADS when the player is in different stances
- Fixed broken player model on career card when on someone else’s ship.
- Referee: fixed incorrect recoil values.
- Fixed weapon terminals losing functionality if the last client player that interacted with them leaves the host ship.
- Fix missing localization for flying patrol traffic modifiers.
- Fix an issue where throwing knives could remain suspended in the air.
- Support for non-Latin fonts in the path of the game installation folder.
- Vehicle skins are now applied to all vehicle variants when equipped directly from Warbonds.
- Fixes flag targets not properly tracking the Helldiver’s position on the Combat Walker.
- PH-202 Twigsnapper Helmet: fixed missing description.
- Fixed an issue where the shuttle would cut through Bile Titans and terrain during landing sequences.
- Improved performance on PS5 when CPU bound
- Fixes remaining FX when Spore Spewer is destroyed
- Make the stim vfx stay on screen for the duration of the stim effect when the med set bonus is present.
- Fix for players with an emote receiver to be able to use their weapons during the emote animation
- Hellbombs are now called down towards the player rather than away from the player.
Known issues
These are issues that were either introduced by this patch and are being worked on, or are from a previous version and have not yet been fixed.
- Sending friend requests via the in-game friend code is currently not working.
- Players may not be able to join or be invited to the game.
- Players added to the ‘Recent Players’ list will appear in the middle of the list.
- Players may experience delays in medal and super credit payouts.
- Available operations are generated again after reconnecting after AFK is kicked.
- Bleeding enemies do not progress in Personal Orders and Eradication missions.
- Bow weapons sometimes behave inconsistently and sometimes fail.
- Most guns fire under the reticle when you aim at the sights.
- Plasma Punisher is unable to fire shield generators.
- Stratagem the beam can attach to the enemy, but deploys to its original location.
- The “Hand Carts” ship module does not reduce the cooldown of the Shield Generator Pack.
- A Bile Titan sometimes does not damage the head.
- The charger stock is not damaged by the explosion.
- Players can get stuck in Loadout when joining a game in progress.
- Boosts may not be available for players who join an ongoing game.
- Planet liberation reaches 100% at the end of each defense mission.
- The “Raise the Super Earth Flag” objective does not show a progress bar.
- The number of missions on the Career tab resets to zero every time you restart the game.
- Some weapon descriptions are outdated and do not reflect their current design.
Wesley is the UK news editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. Wesley can be contacted at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.