The current state of the weapon sandbox in Helldivers 2 isn’t ideal, as players keep seeing fun guns getting nerfed while the rest of the weapons are receiving almost meaningless buffs—and Arrowhead’s CEO agrees that something needs to change.
This seemingly won’t last for too long, as on May 13, the Arrowhead developer by the name of Evil-Bosse on Helldivers 2 official Discord shared that the CEO, Johan Pilestedt, is doing a “major internal push on balancing,” and there are currently “a lot of talks meetings and a lot of chats going on” about the matter.
Last week, Pilestedt mentioned that he believes Arrowhead has gone too far in some areas and intends to talk to the team about how to approach weapon balance. “It feels like every time someone finds something fun, the fun is removed,” he wrote.
Aside from certain primary weapons feeling extremely underwhelming, players pointed out that weapon nerfs might affect more than one weapon. “Pre-nerf Eruptor allowed me to use the Stalwart in ways I never did before (I never really used it much before),” one player wrote, adding the latest R-9 Eruptor change ended up nerfing two guns for them.
Others highlighted that heavy weapon nerfs often kill the identity of the gun. For example, the R-9 Eruptor had its explosion shrapnel removed, and the CB-9 Exploding Crossbow had its explosion size reduced.
Pilestedt agreed, saying he hates spreadsheet design and that fantasy should come first when it comes to weapons. Substantial changes won’t happen overnight, and while we don’t know what the developer is planning to do, prioritizing fun gives players hope the existing weapons will become more useful and viable in the future.
