Helldivers 2 has been on a tear recently with the reveal of the Siege Breakers Warbond and guess what? It’s finally here, but it’s not alone: Arrowhead Studios revealed a major patch — Helldivers 2 Patch 6.0.1, to be precise — and it’s…it’s a lot.
Fans will likely enjoy a lot of the balancing changes the game got — especially when it comes to melee combat — as well as a small buff on enemy targeting, making challenges more, well, challenging.
The new update is available for download across all platforms (those being the PlayStation 5 Windows and Xbox Series X/S). Oh, and don’t forget to check out our explainer on how to get started in case you’re late to the party.
Here’s the full breakdown.
Helldivers 2 Patch 6.0.1 — The Full notes
The Helldivers 2 Patch 6.0.1 patch is titled “Into the Unjust,” and it introduces significant content updates, balancing overhauls, and technical fixes aimed at improving close-quarters combat and game stability.
Major Content Updates
New Warbond and Vehicles
- Siege Breakers Premium Warbond: This new collection focuses on close-range engagements and includes the LAS-16 Trident (a laser-based shotgun firing six beams), the GL-28 Belt-Fed Grenade Launcher, and the EAT-411 Leveller.
- Bastion Tank: A brand new heavily armored vehicle designed for high firepower and team cooperation.
- CQC-20 Breaching Hammer: A new stratagem weapon that encourages players to engage enemies in melee range.
New Customization and Localization
- Interchangeable Emotes: Almost all emotes and victory poses are now interchangeable, allowing players to use victory poses as emotes and vice versa.
- Chinese Voiceover: Full Chinese VO has been added to the game.
- War Horse Set: A new armor set will be available in the Superstore starting February 10.
Comprehensive Combat Balancing
Melee Combat Overhaul
- Base Damage Buff: The base melee attack damage has been increased by 50%.
- Melee Weapon Scaling: Damage for all melee weapons has been significantly increased to make them more viable without requiring specific armor.
- CQC-42 Machete: Damage increased from 200 to 300.
- CQC-5 Combat Hatchet: Damage increased from 160 to 240.
- CQC-2 Saber: Damage increased from 125 to 188.
- Bayonets (Constitution/Amendment): Melee damage increased from 110 to 165.
- Armor Passive Re-balance: The melee damage bonus from passives like Peak Physique and Rock Solid was reduced from 100% to 40%, while Reinforced Epaulettes dropped from 50% to 20%. The intent is to make these passives less “mandatory” since the base weapon damage is now higher.
Sidearm and SMG Enhancements
- Sway Reduction: To improve close-combat effectiveness, the sway modifier for nearly all SMGs and Pistols (including the Knight, Defender, Peacemaker, and Senator) has been reduced from 1.2 or 1.3 down to 1.
- P-72 Crisper: Magazine capacity increased from 30 to 50.
- GL-21 Grenade Launcher: Armor penetration level increased from Medium to Heavy.
Unified Weapon Inputs
- Control Standardization: Similar weapon functions (Programmable ammo, Volley modes, Safe/Unsafe modes, and Guided modes) have been moved to the Left direction input for better muscle memory.
- Affected weapons include the RS-422 Railgun, StA-X3 W.A.S.P. Launcher, SG-22 Bushwhacker, and DBS-2 Double Freedom.
Enemy and Difficulty Adjustments
High-Difficulty Intensity
- Difficulty 9+: Intensity has been increased across all factions, with the most notable changes affecting the Automaton front.
- Improved Targeting: Enemies, particularly Automatons and Gunships, have received software updates to improve their aiming and tracking capabilities.
Unit-Specific Changes
- Durable Damage Rebalance: Many enemy attacks (Bile Titans, Chargers, Overseers, and Rockets) now deal increased damage against durable targets to account for the large health pools of new Helldiver vehicles like the Bastion.
- Dragon Roach: Direct flame attack damage reduced by 25%.
- Devastator: Durable status removed from their arms.
- Crescent Overseer: Increased force on artillery attacks to stagger Helldivers and increased direct shot damage.
Technical Fixes and Quality of Life
PC Hang Detection and Crash Fixes
- Hang Detection: A new PC feature detects freezes lasting longer than 20 seconds and forces a crash to generate a “crash dump” file for debugging.
- Crash Resolutions: Fixed crashes occurring during Galactic Map access, Lava Missions, and weapon customization desynchronization.
Performance Optimizations
- Fog Density: Volumetric Fog Quality settings have been improved so that “Lowest” and “Low” settings now match for better visibility.
- Lighting Tweaks: The personal light source attached to Helldivers has been removed in favor of improved environmental lighting in dark areas.
- Explosions: Performance improvements were implemented for general destruction and explosions, especially around bot factories.
Notable Bug Fixes
- Infinite Supplies: Fixed a bug where the B-1 Supply Pack gave infinite supplies when dropped.
- Reloading in Vehicles: Helldivers can now reload while inside the M-102 Fast Reconnaissance Vehicle.
- Commando Targeting: MLS-4X Commando rockets now target correctly instead of following the last point aimed.
- Pelican Extraction: Fixed an issue where a second Pelican would attempt to extract Helldivers when one was already present.
- Client Damage: Fixed inconsistencies where clients performed less damage than the host.
It is worth noting that the update comes as Helldivers 2 has established itself as a key product for Arrowhead Game Studios, recently reaching the monumental milestone of 20 million copies sold, effectively translating into a gross revenue that exceeds the $700 million mark.
So good on Arrowhead for the timely release.
