Defending a kinda wimpy Killzone crossover gun, Helldivers 2's Johan Pilestedt says the game's past balance woes were due to weapons being 'seen as game objects' and that 'balance doesn't matter'

pcgamer.com:

Helldivers 2, as I mentioned last month, has been a complete rollercoaster during its first year of updates. Balance in particular has been a consistent pain point. As in, those funny little patches that make your guns good or bad and start flame wars: The railgun nerfs that launched a thousand ships. And 2025 is kicking off with another one.

The latest in this long line of balance discussions has been inspired by the recent Killzone crossover weapons, whose controversy saw their latter half offered for free as penance. CCO Johan Pilestedt has now waded into the discourse to to dispense some Super Earthly wisdom: «Balance doesn't matter,» he reckons. Erm.

Alright, in fairness, that's just one part of a Reddit comment made by Pilestedt on the subject. One weapon in particular has been put in the crosshairs: The PLAS-39 Accelerator Rifle. This weapon is in a bit of a weird spot—it fires a burst of three shots with a mag of nine rounds, as a sniper rifle, meaning it chews through its ammo very quickly. Its damage also isn't really up to snuff with its inefficiency. In fact, as the author of the thread Pilestedt is replying to notes, it's outclassed by the PLAS-101 Purifier, a weapon we specifically called out after the huge balance patches back in November as a «bot-killing phenomenon».

The Purifier is similar to the PLAS-39 in that it's a charge-based weapon, but it also comes with considerably heftier damage, a more efficient clip, and it has a semi-auto mode for when you do want to spray and pray. It's both deadlier and more versatile than its Killzone crossover cousin, which would, let's not forget, have cost 600 Super Credits before Arrowhead gave it away for free.

In response, Pilestedt argues: «Weapons are what weapons are, balance doesn't matter. This is also what was wrong before. Things were seen as game objects rather than real weapons. If you like the [Killzone] fantasy, you may want to use it. It kills things, not useless. It could maybe use some tweaking,