Helldivers 2’s New Premium Warbond Is Live and Players Are Explaining Why It's Not Pay-to-Win Again

ign.com:

Helldivers 2’s new premium Warbond, dubbed Cutting Edge, is out now and has added a number of new weapons, gear, and armor to the game, as well as cosmetic items such as emotes. But while many players of Arrowhead’s co-op shooter are getting stuck in, some are debating whether the premium Warbond strays into pay-to-win territory.

The premium Warbond, essentially a battle pass, is bought with 1,000 Super Credits, Helldiver 2's virtual currency. And like most battle passes, Helldiver 2's Premium Warbond contains items that must be unlocked with a separate virtual currency, called Medals.

In this way, players can’t simply buy the Premium Warbond and unlock everything it has to offer, although you can get pretty far with it day-one if you’ve saved up lots of medals. Super Credits are obtained through gameplay and via Warbonds themselves, but obviously at a slower rate than if you were to buy them with real money. 1,000 Super Credits costs $9.99.

So, it is possible to buy this premium Warbond with real money. But what does it include that makes it pay-to-win? There are a number of weapons, gear, and armor items that are exclusive to the premium Warbond, and it’s the inclusion of these items that has sparked renewed debate about whether Helldivers 2 is pay-to-win.

It’s early days of course, but already players are saying some of the new gear is particularly powerful. The body armor, for example, provides a whopping 95% resistance to arc damage, which is useful in the context of friendly fire very much being a part of Helldivers 2.

Some of the new weapons appear to be potent, and there’s even an exclusive booster that increases the time between enemy encounters. That last item sounds really helpful in a game that sends waves of enemies at players.

But can a purely player versus environment video game be pay-to-win? With no player-versus-player, Helldivers 2 simply revolves killing alien bugs and robots. If one teammate has cool new gear after splashing out on the premium