Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead has released the Into the Unjust: 4.1.0 update, which it said is designed to make the game “feel better to play.”

This much anticipated update overhauls how Arrowhead approaches patching “to better target the pain points you’ve shared with us.” The studio said that means “more focus on stability, balance, and the issues that affect your experience the most.”

Over 200 bugs have been fixed, along with key balance updates and quality-of-life improvements. Arrowhead said that while new features are coming, this patch marks “a big step forward: both in the game itself and in how we work to improve it.” More refinements are already underway, the studio continued.

In terms of balance, the overall effectiveness of primary weapons, sidearms, throwables, and stratagems is increased. SMGs and pistols, for example, have been adjusted to emphasize their role as close-quarters weapons, with increased close-range damage and increased damage falloff.

It’s worth noting changes are made to enemies across the board. The Dragon Roach, for example, has seen its spawn rate decreased, and destruction of the wings now results in instant death. Each wing has a health pool, and the Dragon Roach should be more susceptible to explosions because even if you hit the body you now also hit the wings and do more damage. Overall, there should be fewer Dragon Roaches and they should be easier to take down.

Check out the patch notes, courtesy of the Helldivers 2 Discord, below:

Helldivers 2 Into the Unjust: 4.1.0 patch notes:

Balancing

General changes

Primaries, Sidearms, Throwables, and Stratagems

• Improvements have been made to increase the overall effectiveness of primary weapons, sidearms, throwables, and stratagems

Light vs. Medium Penetration Weapons

• Light and medium penetration weapons now offer more distinct advantages.

Light penetration weapons generally deal a higher percentage of their total damage against durable enemies, differentiating them more clearly from medium penetration options

SMGs and Pistols

• SMGs and pistols have been adjusted to emphasize their role as close-quarters weapons. Close-range damage has been increased, and damage falloff has been increased to reinforce their short-range combat identity

Melee Weapons and Throwables

• Melee weapons and throwables have been improved to make each feel more impactful and unique in their function

Resupply Rack

• The resupply rack is not climbable anymore

Primary weapons

SG-8P Punisher Plasma

• Damage projectile decreased from 100 to 0
• Damage explosion increased from 150 to 225

SG-8S Slugger

• Damage increased from 280 to 330
• Durable damage increased from 75 to 90

AR-23 Liberator

• Damage increased from 80 to 90
• Durable damage increased from 15 to 22

AR-23A Liberator Carbine

• Damage increased from 80 to 90
• Durable damage increased from 15 to 22

AR-23P Liberator Penetrator

• Damage increased from 60 to 65

AR-23C Liberator Concussive

• Damage increased from 65 to 75
• Durable damage increased from 30 to 35

AR-61 Tenderizer

• Durable damage increased from 22 to 30

AR-32 Pacifier

• Damage increased from 50 to 55
• Stun value per projectile increased from 1.5 to 2

SMG-37 Defender

• Damage increased from 80 to 100
• Durable damage increased from 8 to 18
• Drag increased from 0.6 to 1.2

MP-98 Knight

• Damage increased from 70 to 90
• Durable damage increased from 7 to 18
• Drag increased from 0.6 to 1.2

SMG-32 Reprimand

• Damage increased from 125 to 135
• Drag increased from 0.6 to 1.2

SMG-72 Pummeler

• Damage increased from 70 to 85
• Durable damage increased from 7 to 18
• Stun value per projectile increased from 1.5 to 2
• Drag increased from 0.6 to 1.2

LAS-16 Sickle

• Damage increased from 55 to 60
• Durable damage increased from 5 to 6

MA5C Assault Rifle

• Damage increased from 80 to 90

M7S SMG

• Damage increased from 70 to 80
• Durable damage increased from 7 to 16
• Drag increased from from 0.6 to 1.2

StA-11 SMG

• Damage increased from 70 to 90
• Durable damage increased from 7 to 18
• Drag increased from 0.6 to 1.2

PLAS-39 Accelerator Rifle

• Extra spare magazines increased from 8 to 12
• Ergonomics increased from 40 to 60

Sidearm weapons

CQC-2 Saber

• Damage increased from 110 to 125
• Durable damage increased from 55 to 65

CQC-5 Combat Hatchet

• Damage increased from 110 to 160
• Durable damage increased from 55 to 80
• Attack speed has been slightly reduced

CQC-42 Machete

• Damage increased from 170 to 200
• Durable damage increased from 80 to 100

P-2 Peacemaker

• Damage increased from 85 to 95
• Durable damage increased from 25 to 30
• Drag increased from 0.6 to 1.2

P-19 Redeemer

• Damage increased from 60 to 70
• Durable damage increased from 5 to 12
• Drag increased from 0.6 to 1.2

P-113 Verdict

• Damage increased from 125 to 135
• Drag increased from 0.6 to 1.2

M6C/SOCOM

• Damage increased from 100 to 110
• Drag increased from 0.6 to 1.2

P-92 Warrant

• Drag decreased from 0.3 to 0
• Gravity multiplier decreased from 1 to 0.3

Throwables

TED-63 Dynamite

• Damage increased from 700 to 1000
• Armor penetration increased from Medium to Heavy
• Demolition strength increased from 30 to 40
• Stagger increased from 30 to 40
• Uses decreased from 4 to 3

G-7 Pineapple

• Shrapnel from main explosion increased from 7 to 18
• Demolition strength on the main explosion increased from 20 to 30
• Inner radius on shrapnel explosion increased from 1 to 2.5m
• Damage on shrapnel explosion increased from 70 to 100
• Removed lifetime on the shrapnel
• Shrapnel from the shrapnel explosion decreased from 6 to 0

G-50 Seeker

• Higher priority for flying enemies
• Highest target priority for marked target
• Damage increased from 400 to 500

G-6 Frag

• Uses increased from 5 to 6

G-3 Smoke

• Uses increased from 4 to 5

Throwing knifes

• Damage increased from 250 to 300
• Durable damage increased from 100 to 150

PLAS-1 Scorcher

• Plasma projectiles will now pass through foliage without losing velocity

Stratagems

PLAS-45 Epoch

• Duration until explosion increased from 3 to 3.25 sec
• Delayed muzzle charge VFX by 0.5 seconds so it now appears when the projectile is overcharged, improving visibility of the charge state
• Damage on standard projectiles explosion increased from 400 to 500
• Demolition strength on overcharged projectile increased from 10 to 30

M-105 Stalwart

• Damage increased from 80 to 90
• Durable damage increased from 15 to 22

FLAM-40 Flamethrower

• Canister capacity increased from 130 to 150
• Starting canisters increased from 2 to 3
• Max spare canisters increased from 4 to 5

APW-1 Anti-Materiel Rifle

• Durable damage increased from 180 to 225
• Starting magazines increased from 4 to 5
• Max spare magazines increased from 6 to 8

AC- 8 Autocannon

• Damage increased from 260 to 325

GL-52 De-Escalator

• Damage increased from 55 to 100
• Durable damage increased from 55 to 70

MS-11 Solo Silo

• Health increased from 800 to 1500
• Enemies will not attack it
• Increased demolition strength needed to destroy it

Orbital Railcannon Strike

• Cooldown decreased from 210 to 180 sec

EXO-45 Patriot Exosuit

• Missile Armor penetration in worse angles increased from 6-6-4-0 to 6-6-5-0
• Rotary gun ammo capacity increased from 1000 to 1350

Enemies

• The goal is to make light and medium armor-piercing weapons equally effective against certain common enemies by adjusting their durable damage and durable resistance values

Illuminates

Fleshmob

• Targeting the faces deals extra damage to its main health, effectively creating weak spots
• Main health decreased from 6000 to 5000
• Most health zones are slightly more durable
• Slightly less vulnerable to fire to balance health decrease

Elevated Overseer

• Main health decreased from 600 to 450
• Head health increased from 150 to 200
• Head zone armor decreased from 3 to 2
• Torso health decreased from 600 to 450
• Arms health decreased from 300 to 250
• Slight increase on how easy it is to set on fire

Leviathan

• Now equipped with beam-based weaponry
• Leviathans will not show up in missions outside of cities

Terminids

Rupture Strain enemies

• Updated textures for all Rupture Strain enemies for better readability

Rupture Warrior

• Movement speed when underground has been decreased
• Needs to surface more often when moving underground
• Its burrow attack is slightly slower and leaves more space to be dodged
• Smaller damage boxes when attacking from below
• Front legs armor decreased from 3 to 2
• Will prefer to emerge before attacking turrets instead of destroying them from below ground

Rupture Spewer

• Retuned the timing of how fast it starts to act from when it unburrows

Bile Spewer Variations

• Increased size of its mouth weak spot

Brood Commanders

• Slightly harder to set on fire

Warriors

• Slightly harder to set on fire
• Slight durable increase in head and body

Dragon roach

• Spawn rate decreased
  • 50% lower on difficulty 5,6
  • 40% lower on difficulty 7,8,9
  • 33% lower on difficulty 10
• Destruction of the wings results in instant termination of the Dragon
  • Wings now have their own health pool of 4000
  • Increased how much damage wings take from explosion

Bile spewers

• Slightly harder to set on fire
• Larger body parts are slightly more durable

Hive Lord

• Improved performance during Hive Lord encounters.

Automatons

Base Alarming

• Automaton troopers in bases will require better visual confirmation before calling in reinforcements, instead of calling them in immediately

Devastators

• Slightly harder to be put on fire
• Large body parts are slightly more durable

Command Bunker Turret

• Removed ragdolling from its projectiles explosion

Factory Strider

• Slightly less vulnerable to fire

War Strider

• Shoots 2 fewer grenades per salvo
• Shoots grenades less often
• Removed ragdolling from its projectiles explosions
• Added weak spots aim for the eyes and the vents on the back

Scout Striders

• Armored top shield is more durable

Fixes

Stratagems

• Fixed an issue where Helldivers were unable to call down stratagems in the objective area of the “Nuke Nursery” cave mission
• Fixed an issue with the B-100 Portable Hellbomb stratagem sometimes falling on Cave roofs in the “Destroy Spore Lung” mission
• Fixed an issue with the drill objective stratagem sometimes landing in unintended places such as on top of caves, in Nuke Nursery Hive World missions
• Players can now stay aiming down sights when activating the LIFT-860 Hover Pack

Crashes

• Fixed a rare crash occurring when fighting Illuminates
• Fixed a crash when hotjoining and readying up before other hotjoiners
• Fixed a crash occurring when a player would re-join multiple times
• Fixed a rare crash caused by Eagle-1
• Fixed a rare bug where the Eagle-1 would never be removed from the game session and eventually cause crashes
• Fixed rare crash bug that could happen when spawning in groups of enemies
• Fixed crash affecting Helldivers trying to lean out from a vehicle
• Fixed a crash that could happen when scrolling through the weapon customization menu
• Fixed a crash that could happen during game shutdown

Weapons

• Fixed armor penetration values in the Stats Menu for CQC-5 Combat Hatchet, CQC-30 Stun Baton,CQC-19 Stun Lance, CQC-2 Saber, CQC-1 One True Flag and the G-7 Pineapple grenade; the armor penetration value displayed as Medium instead of Light
• Improved initial bullet alignment while strafing and riding in vehicles
• Moved the first person camera further away from the MS-11 Solo Silo’s Target Designator scope
• Fixed the weapon reload animations desyncing when wielding armor passives that give increased reload speed
• The FAF-14 Spear can now lock onto Automaton AA turrets
• Fixed projectiles hitting direct center of sights when extremely close to objects
• Haptics feedback is now present throughout the firing of the FLAM-40 Flamethrower stratagem

Miscellaneous

• Fixed a bug where Hive Lord body parts would not spawn properly
• Fixed an instance where the Helldiver couldn’t re-join their previous host, if said host left a joined game in progress from the loadout
• Fixed a bug where the LIFT-182 Warp Pack would sometimes get stuck suspended in the air or crash
• Fixed Adreno-Defibrillator armor passive animation bug
• Fixed disconnection issues when joining a solo player with 3 cross-platform players
• Fixed mesh clipping for the arms on some animations
• Reduced the chance of the Extraction Shuttle clipping through terrain
• Fixed a flickering bug on the avatar when the Helldiver gets affected by mud or snow
• Fixed a bug hole covered by terrain in one of the CR10 Mega Nests
• Rupture Warriors can no longer destroy deployable turrets while still underground
• Fixed an issue where the front door of the GATER could become inaccessible
• Fixed a rare issue where the player could be disconnected when they are a part of a mixed platform, 3 person lobby that joins a solo player under poor network conditions
• Fixed an issue with Illuminate dropships not taking correct damage during the “Repel Invasion Fleet” missions
• The currency symbol for Saudi riyal is now displayed correctly in the in game shop
• The Oil Rigs reverse audio will no longer continuously play if the player attempts to reverse during oil extraction
• Fixed Helldivers going through the floor in the tutorial mission, when diving near the barbed wires
• Fixed a rare soft-lock in tutorial
• Helldiver is now killed when driving into drill holes during Nuke Nursery missions
• Fixed an issue where Helldivers could enter a vehicle even though the seat got claimed by someone else first
• Fixed controller vibrations behaving incorrectly when connecting or disconnecting controllers on PC
• Fixed miscellaneous threading issues in the audio system
• Fixed minor texture clipping issues on the floor between hellpod launchers on the ship
• Fixed an issue where voice chat could sometimes change volume unexpectedly – particularly when entering caves

Optimizations

• Optimized status effects
• Optimized physics by only enabling powered ragdolls when needed
• Optimized physics body handling for damage calculations
• Optimized Automaton units and NPC eyes, by changing them from particle effects to shaders
• Optimized AI behaviors by analyzing and stripping out redundant code
• Reduced stuttering during drop-in sequence for missions on Hive Worlds
• Improved audio IO performance
• Snow distribution and overall look has been reworked
• Improved performance by tweaking LOD settings for characters
• Optimized asset distribution for several planets types
• Optimized scattered assets such as grass on various planet types
• Optimized asset distribution in Hiveworlds and Terminid caves
• Optimized asset setup and geometry for assets used in Hiveworlds and Terminid caves
• Optimized status effect physics and particle systems while maintaining visual feedback and fidelity
• Optimized various Automaton explosion VFX
• Optimized Acid Rain effects during Acid Storms
• Optimized Dragonroach fire attack VFX
• Made various optimizations to the fire system, including particle and light optimization.
• Improved performance by optimizing the rendering of several shaders

Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.