Helldivers 2, despite being a co-op shooter, does have a respectable contingent of lone wolves. That's for a variety of reasons—including (but not limited to) just liking the unique experience of it more.
As of patch 1.000.300, however, solo missions have become a whole lot harder, just likely not in the way its devs intended them to be.
After the changes, players reported a sharp uptick in patrols that made solo play nigh-on impossible, to which Arrowhead Games responded that «the intention [of the patch] is that one player has 1/4th of the patrols compared to four players, but it used to be that they had 1/6th».
This makes sense on paper. However, in testing, Helldivers 2 players have found this design statement doesn't track at all. Solo players have roughly the same amount of patrol spawns as a full team, unless that team's operating in very specific circumstances—in other words, it's not just you: something's borked.
As discovered by sleuth and all-around patrol expert Luchs, part of a team who built out an excellent Reddit thread on the subject a couple of months ago, solo players are getting unduly shafted.