The Machinery of Oppression update has arrived for Helldivers 2 and while it adds a variety of new content for players, this patch also features a wealth of balance changes. While Helldivers 2 has largely managed to fix the major community concerns surrounding performance and technical issues that popped up in the latter half of 2025, the game appears to still have a few rough edges that fans are hoping to see smoothed out.
The latest update comes at an interesting time for the game, as many fans are once again voicing their concerns, much of which arose after a recent AMA session. Part of the issue revolves around a lack of roadmap, leaving fans largely in the dark as to what to expect in the future, while others continue to question some of the balancing and an overall lack of weapon customization options. In response, Arrowhead has promised better communication with future Helldivers 2 plans. With that said, the latest major patch has arrived, and it appears to make some sweeping changes across the board.
Helldivers 2 Update Adds Unique New Feature, But There’s a Catch
Arrowhead Game Studios releases a new update for Helldivers 2, but this one is a little different from previous patches in what it adds to the game.
Machinery of Oppression is bringing new content to Helldivers 2 as Arrowhead Game Studios added 2 new biomes to explore as players continue to push into new territory. As revealed in the blog post, players will find locations marked by tranquil forests with winding paths, massive trees, and running rivers. While the patch notes don’t specifically mention the second, it does tease “alarming signals” on Gloom-infested planets, especially with what appears to be a new variant of the Bile Titan, though Arrowhead doesn’t get into too many details, pushing players to explore for themselves. In addition, the previously revealed Exo Experts Premium Warbond for Helldivers 2 is also now available for purchase, adding new EXO suits, weapons, and more.
In fact, the arrival of two new EXOs is good timing because this update is also rebalancing how these mechs work. Arrowhead indicated it agreed with the community that Exosuits in Helldivers 2 feel a little too fragile. To address that, the health pool has nearly doubled, going from 850 to 1600, with the arms also getting a 50% additional resistance to explosions and a health boost from 350 to 600. In addition, the mech will only go down if the main health pool is depleted, no longer potentially happening if a specific health zone was destroyed instead. However, Arrowhead is boosting Terminid attacks against Exosuits, not only buffing damage to be more in line with automatons and illuminate, but making them more vulnerable to acid by 50%.
Helldivers 2 Stratagems and Sidearms have also seen adjustments, with many seeing buffs like a reduced stamina cost or, as is the case with the Stun Baton, a damage boost as well. The Defoliation Tool has a bigger hit box to make it easier to hit enemies, doesn’t cost as much stamina to use, and increases its armor penetration twice as fast. Ballistic Shield Backpack has more health, the Spear has more missiles to shoot, the Flame Sentry is deadlier at longer ranges, the Laser Sentry has a bigger heat capacity, and the Sterlizer gas lingers for longer at a bigger range.
As part of the Terminid update with the Exosuits, the entire faction in general has its own section in the patch notes. For most Terminid enemy types in Helldivers 2, they’ve had their “durable damage” increased, though the Bile Titan is one with the most changes. Specifically, the spew explosions are smaller, reducing the inner and outer explosion radius to better match the visuals, which should give players a better chance to avoid being hit. The Hive Guard has stronger armor on its head and front legs, though the body and claws are now unarmored entirely.
Guess the games from the emojis.
Guess the games from the emojis.
Easy (120s)Medium (90s)Hard (60s)
As for the Autoimatons, they’ve also seen some changes. Specifically, all Tank enemies have increased health, going from 3000 to 4000, while the back vents have also been buffed from 750 to 1500 and are getting an armor boost as well. The shield held by Heavy Devastators is now destructible and will drop when destroyed.
Helldivers 2 Machinery of Oppression 6.2.2 Update 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
Shriekers
Scavengers
Hunters
All Warrior variants
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
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
Barrager tank turret
- Increased health on weak spot on front and back from 750 to 1500
Illuminates
Fleshmobs
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.
- Released
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February 8, 2024
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, In-Game Purchases, Users Interact
- Developer(s)
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Arrowhead Game Studios, Nixxes
- Publisher(s)
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Sony Interactive Entertainment, PlayStation Publishing
