It can be hard to resist the idea of harnessing electricity to break bots and squish bugs in Helldivers 2, but until the next patch prevents those items from crashing the game, the devs recommend you steer clear.
According to an update from the community lead for Arrowhead Game Studios posted to the official Helldivers 2 Discord channel, the team has finally identified the cause behind a spike of crashes that have been plaguing players since yesterday. While the exact issue was not relayed to players, the team confirmed it was linked to a patch deployed yesterday and to the usage of the Arc Thrower, Arc Shotgun, and Tesla Tower.
For the time being, the devs advise against using these items until a patch that will issue is deployed. This patch is currently in the process of being built and is expected to be deployed “early next week.”
All three items use electricity to deal damage, suggesting a change made to electric damage in the most recent patch is what’s causing the crashes. The Arc Shotgun, or the ARC-12 Blitzer, is one of the more popular new additions included in the Cutting Edge warbond. Tesla Tower is one of the more divisive Strategems available, as its effectiveness and teamkilling potential are equally high. The Arc Thrower is a fun support weapon option that’s very effective against waves of smaller enemies but isn’t very viable against large or heavily armored enemies.
While this change may be inadvertent, one of the aspects of Helldivers 2 that has led to its surge in popularity is how the game is constantly shifting and changing, whether that be via new enemy types or planetary effects. The launch of the Exosuit mechs was “delayed” by a surprise Terminid invasion, and it’s not even clear if that was a planned delay or a clever pivot to push back the deployment.
As mentioned above, the patch fixing the crashing issue related to the Arc Thrower, Arc Shotgun, and Tesla Tower is expected early next week.