Helldivers 2’s latest update seriously buffs the game’s Exosuits, with developer Arrowhead Studios agreeing with players that the mechs could “take too little damage and break too easily.”
That doesn’t seem like it will be the case any longer. As detailed in the patch notes for Helldivers 2’s Machinery of Oppression 6.2.2. update, Exosuits are now a stratagem to be reckoned with. Their main health has been nearly doubled, as has the health of their arms. Speaking of arms, while they were previously the most commonly destroyed part of the mech prior to the update, they now have 50% explosion resistance like the main Exosuit body. The suits also no longer lose all mobility when both legs are broken, which should keep them in the fight longer.
That’s a whole lot of Exosuit buffs, but there were a few downsides added, too. Exosuits can now be staggered, slowed by gas effects, and are far more vulnerable to acid attacks. To help the Terminids better damage these new, extra-durable Exosuits, a number of Terminid enemy types (and even a few Illuminate and Automatons) have had the durablility damage they deal against vehicles increased.
Even with those negatives taken into account, Exosuits sound like they will be a far more viable option against non-Terminid enemies now–an area where they previously struggled, especially against the explosive-heavy Automatons.
All the Exosuit changes come just as Helldivers 2’s Exo Experts Warbond arrives, introducing two new Exosuit variants for players to bring to the Second Galactic War. The Exo-51 Lumberer brings an anti-tank cannon and a flamethrower to the fight, while the Exo-55 Breakthrough comes equipped with a flak cannon and ballistic shield. The Warbond additionally comes with two new weapons (a SMG primary and a pistol secondary), a disposable machine gun stratagem, two armor sets that allow for faster movement, and a batch of new cosmetics.
Exosuit buffs aren’t the only change as part of the most recent Helldivers 2 update. Arrowhead additionally made a number of balance changes to various sidearms and stratagems. A batch of melee weapons, like the Saber, Hatchet, and Stun weapons, have had their stamina costs decreased, while stratagems like the Ballistic Shield, Spear, Defoliation Tool, and Flame and Laser Senties have all seen buffs. The Defoliation Tool, a massive two-handed chainsword stratagem, may now be worth a second look in particular, as Arrowhead has increased its damage hit box and damage window, increased its armor penetration, and decreased its stamina cost.
A new biome has been added as well–a lush forest that, frankly, looks far nicer than any of the galactic battlefields previously seen in Helldivers 2. No doubt the forest will look a lot less idyllic once the Automatons and the other enemies of Super Earth make landfall.
Arrowhead revealed its future plans for Helldivers 2 earlier this year as part of the game’s first-ever roadmap. In it, Arrowhead outlined what players can expect through June of this year, including new biomes, Warbonds, and balance changes. You can read the full update 6.2.2 patch notes below.
Helldivers 2 Machinery Of Opression Update 6.2.2 Patch Notes
Patch Highlights
- 2 new Biomes
- One new enemy variant
- Major Exo Suit rebalance
- Enemy rebalances
- Side-Arm and Stratagem rebalances
- Several known issues resolved
Resolved known issues:
- Defend city events appear Super Earth controlled again
- Destroying the Air Base Control Tower with a portable Hellbomb no longer blocks objective progression.
- Enthusiastic Mirth emote sound has been fixed, laughter is once again permitted on the battlefield.
- Fleshmobs are no longer able to clip through various objects when charging.
- We have restocked the fireworks for the celebration when players have completed the tutorial (good job, you have earned them)
- Gunships and Shriekers are now spawning during operations with the appropriate effect present.
- The Double-Edged Sickle no longer emits a high-pitched drone when firing.
- Players will no longer be redirected to the Python Commandos Warbond instead of Redacted Regiment and vice versa when selecting ‘Acquisitions’ in the Ship Management menu.
- Sparks and bug spawner smoke now have higher material resolution.
Balancing
Exo suits rebalance
We agree with the community that the Exosuits can take too little damage and break too easily, especially against the Automaton faction. Therefore we have made a bigger balance pass to increase its durability.
- Increased main health pool from 850 to 1600
- The Exo suit will only die if the main healthpool is depleted. Before it could die if specific healthzones were depleted.
- Increased vulnerability to acid attacks by 50%
- Fixed so parts of the cockpit healthzones are not blocked by the ragdoll actor. Now the cockpit zones will be damageable in the right way.
- Increased Exo suit arms health from 350 to 600
- Exo suit arms now also have a 50% explosion resistance (just like the main body)
- Removed constitution and bleedout on the Exo suit arms.
- Exo suits no longer lose all mobility when both legs are broken.
- Can now be staggered, have stagger strength 45. Stagger does not affect the ability to shoot.
- Removed most health zones that do not affect the main health and are mainly visual effects. The reason is to improve performance. For example tow cables and similar items can not be damaged or destroyed anymore.
Enemy damage against vehicles
- We think automatons and illuminates do damage reasonably well against the vehicles especially now with the changes to the Exo suits, the Terminids however have fallen behind a bit in their ability to deal with vehicles so we have made some buffs to their damage against durable targets.
Gas effects
- Now it also slows the enemies with 25% when they are confused by the gas, the slow of course also affects you. Larger enemies like the Bile Titan and factory strider that do not become confused also are therefore not slowed.
Items changes
Sidearms weapons
CQC-30 Stun Baton
- Decreased stamina cost from 5% to 3%
- Increased damage from 75 to 120
- Increased durable damage from 38 to 60
CQC-19 Stun Lance
- Decreased stamina cost from 5% to 3%
CQC-2 Saber
- Decreased stamina cost from 5% to 3%
CQC-5 Combat Hatchet
- Decreased stamina cost from 5% to 4%
CQC-73 Entrenchment Tool
- Decreased stamina cost from 5% to 3%
Stratagems
CQC-9 Defoliation Tool
- Increased and moved damage hit box to make it easier to hit the enemy
- Longer window for when damage hit box is active
- Armor penetration increases twice as fast
- Moves slower when it does damage to an enemy
- Decreased stamina cost from 10% to 5%
CQC-1 One True Flag
- Decreased stamina cost from 5% to 3%
SH-20 Ballistic Shield Backpack
- Increased health from 600 to 1000
FAF-14 Spear
- Increased amount of missiles in the backpack from 3 to 4
A/FLAM-40 Flame Sentry
- Increased range from 20m to 34m
- Increased damage by 50%
- Increased how fast it panics enemies
A/LAS-98 Laser Sentry
- Increased heat capacity from 200 to 250
TX-41 Sterilizer
- Updated gas spray VFX
- The Gas lingers for longer and has longer range
Enemies
Terminids
Bile Titan
- Spew explosions are smaller to match the visuals better
- Decreased Explosion inner radius from 2.25 to 1
- Decreased Explosion outer radius from 3.5 to 2.2
Hive guard
- Increased armor on head and front legs from Medium to Heavy (3 to 4)
- Decreased armor on body and claws from Light to Unarmored (2 to 1)
- Decreased health on body from 500 to 375
Bile Spewers
- Increased durable damage on melee attack
Stalkers & Prowlers
- Increased durable damage
Shriekers
- Increased durable damage
Scavengers
- Increased durable damage
Hunters
- Increased durable damage
All Warrior variants
- Increased durable damage
Charger
- Slight increase in durable damage of its melee and charge attack
Hive Lord
- Increased durable damage on many of its physical attacks
Dragon Roach
- Increased durable damage on its flame attack
Impaler
- Increased stagger force needed from 45 to 50
- Slight increase in durable damage on its melee attack
Automatons
Raiders
- increased durable damage of the melee attacks
- Small arms fire from raiders, turrets, devastators, slight increase in durable damage
Berserkers
- increased durable damage
Devastators
- increased durable damage on melee attack
Heavy Devastators
- Shield is destructible and dropped when destroyed
- Armor heavy (4)
- Health 800
- Durable 0.7
Rocket Devastator
- Decreased stagger strength on rockets projectile from 50 to 35
Hulk
- Increased durable damage on flamer attack
War Strider
- Leg hip joints decreased armor from Heavy to Medium (4 to 3)
All Tanks main body (bottom part)
- Increased health on Main health pool from 3000 to 4000
- Increased health on back vents from 750 to 1500
- Increased armor on back vents from Medium to Heavy (3 to 4)
- Remove tracks damage zone when the zone is dead
- Removed damage cap to carry through from tracks to main health (so if you overkill it more damage goes to main health)
- Reduced durable resistance on tracks (1.0 to 0.8)
- Reduce overlap damage zones when its driving to match visuals better and do less damage
Shredder Tank turret
- Reduced turn speed
Barrager tank turret
- Increased health on weak spot on front and back from 750 to 1500
Illuminates
Fleshmobs
- Increased durable damage
Tesla tower
- Lower destruction strength needed to destroy it from 30 to 20
- Added health function with 200 health and armor 2
🔧 Fixes
Crash Fixes
- Fixed a rare AI crash
- Fixed a crash which could occur when using under barrel firing modes
- Fixed a rare crash that was happening whilst fighting enemies, predominantly against the Illuminates
Weapons & Stratagem Fixes
- Added missing haptics feedback when firing the Automaton MG Emplacement
- SEAF Artillery will no longer let you insert a shell and then immediately remove it, thus softlocking the gun
- Destroying the Air Base Control Tower with a portable Hellbomb in a multiplayer session, no longer blocks objective progression
Enemies
- Fleshmobs now can deal damage to vehicles
- Destroying a Terminid egg while standing against it, can no longer send the Helldiver flying
- Shooting marks on the Exomech will now appear on the correct body part that was being shot at
- Fixed bug where certain enemy kills would not count towards order progression
- Factory Striders will no longer count as Fabricators in the Destroy Automaton Fabricators mission
- Stratagem hellpods can no longer land on the Air Control Tower during the Evacuate Priority Citizens missions
Miscellaneous Fixes
- Fixed a bug where the Helldiver could get soft-locked in the loadout menu, if they had less than 4 total stratagems, where one or more was temporarily disabled
- Fixed squares sometimes appearing in the minimap if Terrain Quality was set to low
- Extraction shuttle now flies straight upon extracting from cities
- Fixed an instance where the Helldiver head twitched when leaving the Hellpod
- Fire should now more consistently scorch the terrain under it. Note: This has no changes to gameplay
- Fixed several floating items on a magma planet
- Fixed a gap in the terrain in the tutorial area
- Optimized performance of Strafing Run particles for DSS Eagle Storm and Air Support stratagems
- A message will be displayed in the stratagem HUD when stratagems fail to be called in
- Tutorial: Flag celebration now has been fixed with proper fireworks timing and lighting
- Players can no longer fall through the ship roof in Illuminate invasion missions
- Fixed a bug where the Helldivers head twitched in the end screen, before and after using Victory Poses
- Tremor ambient sound now fades out properly
- The Burier of Heads title has been thoroughly investigated, and since no signs of alleged dissident connections could be discovered, the title has been reintroduced. Helldivers who have unlocked this title through the Dust Devils Warbond should now find it among the other titles in the customization menu
- Fixed issue where the player could interact with the Hive Core Drill terminal from behind
- Enemy visibility and hearing should now be affected more by different weathers. This means enemies should generally have a harder time spotting and hearing helldivers in more intense weather scenarios
Bonus note
We have now introduced validation checks on launch to help address potential issues caused by out of date drivers.