Arrowhead Game Studios has released a new Helldivers 2 patch, which makes significant balance changes and adds two new planetary hazards.
Version 01.000.200 is now live and, as Arrowhead puts it in the Steam patch notes, is a «slightly bigger update for you all to assist in the liberation efforts of our galaxy,» and comes with two new surprise features.
First is the increased level cap, which has been raised from 50 to 150, since some players have already maxed it out, so it's a welcome adjustment that will allow players to level up further as they continue to fight for freedom and democracy across the galaxy.
Second, is the addition of two new Planetary Hazards: blizzards and sandstorms. Planetary Hazards were introduced in version 01.000.100 last month and are essentially environmental dangers that can occur at any point on any planet while players fight off the Automatons and Terminids.
The patch also aims to address balance changes to a range of features across the board, like Stategems and weapons. One notable change is for the 'Retrieve Essential Personnel' missions, which have been tweaked, moving the enemy spawn points further away from the objective so players have a fairer chance of defending the location and now there are fewer civilians required to complete the mission on higher difficulties.
In terms of enemies, the Bile Titan can no longer be stunned, Shriekers can't create bug breaches anymore, and the Bile Spewer and Nursing Spewer enemies do less damage with their projectile vomit (yuck), among other tweaks.
The lengthy patch notes can be read in full below, which also highlight known issues, including a bug affecting cross-play and friend invites not appearing in the friend tab.
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Helldivers 2 version 01.000.200 patch notes:
Gameplay
Planetary Hazard additions
Increased level cap
Balancing
Missions
Retrieve Essential Personnel
Destroy Command
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