Helldivers 2 has changed a lot over the past five months, but those changes have been largely incremental, rolling out over a number of small updates that were released regularly. It seemed like every other week, a new feature, enemy, or environment would be released. Over time, those releases slowed down, at least in part because they caused so many problems for the community. Now, Helldivers 2 is back with its first “major update,” and it’s packed with new stuff, including a higher difficulty, new game modes, and the return of a favorite enemy.
Arrowhead Game Studios has announced that with the “Escalation of Freedom” update, coming on August 6, things are going to get worse for players, in a fun way. It starts with the reintroduction of the Impaler, a Terminid enemy type that burrows into the ground and releases large, ferocious tentacles to fight players. According to Helldivers 2 design director Miklas Malmborg, the Impalers are meant to “cut off your escape route” with their large tentacles, from which you can change route or stay and fight. Fans actually started theorizing that the Impalers were on their way to Helldivers 2 months ago, after an attack by Helldivers 2. The blog post mentions tentacles a few times and appeared to show off at least one new weapon specifically designed to combat them.
There are even more enemies. The Terminids will also be getting a new variant of the Charger that drops a bunch of noxious spores on its shell and is followed by a fog effect. Expect to see these things pop out of nowhere every now and then, folks. Also getting the Automatons, the horde of brutal robots that Helldivers 2 players fight in the Second Galactic War in Progressare also getting some upgrades. Basic infantrymen seem to be getting a jump pack upgrade, but the biggest threat coming on this front are the new rocket tanks. From a distance, you can see them firing salvos into the sky to come back at you; otherwise, they’ll shoot you.
These enemy force updates come with a whole new difficulty level. While Arrowhead didn’t give too many details on what to expect at difficulty 10, it’s safe to assume that it’s going to be a nightmare, especially if these new units are part of the game.
Mission diversity is also being improved in the Escalation of Freedom update. Arrowhead notably teased a new mission type involving the retrieval of a Terminid larva, which is placed in a suitcase on the player’s back and then must be escorted to extraction. To complicate matters, the larva will scream, which can be heard by the larger Terminids, who will start to group together in squads. Additionally, and this is perhaps what excited me the most personally, there will now be larger enemy outposts to take out. Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt has called these things fortresses, and boy, do they look a bit like one.
These encampments have always been randomly generated and placed on the map, but they were not much of a problem due to their small size. With the right kind of stratagem (deployable weapons and abilities like orbital strikes) you could wipe them off the map, and we even ended up with some weapons that were really good at taking out even the largest insect nests in a matter of seconds. These much larger outposts seem to present a much greater challenge, whether it be due to their increased range, the new enemies that will inevitably populate them, or the density of enemies that we would likely have to escape, especially on the new difficulty level.
The additions don’t stop there. There will be a new version of the swamp environment because Arrowhead wanted to “give it a bit of a creepiness.” It appears to feature darker skies with occasional lightning, and the whole thing looks a lot more spooky than before. There will also be new environmental hazards and reworks to existing ones, like the Acid Storm, which now applies a debuff to players and enemies instead of just limiting visibility.
There will even be a few Quality of Life Fixes in New Update Players will probably appreciate this. Social menus are improved to make it easier to connect with friends, and kicks are redesigned to no longer harass players. Kicked players will now become the host of their own session immediately after being kicked, and they will be able to recover any loot from the last match.
Elsewhere, the galactic war is still raging, and while the studio does provide some insight into story developments, including mention of Terminid migration patterns and “irregular readings” of their spores in certain sectors of the galaxy, it doesn’t reveal anything major. In fact, the trailer ends with several studio members doubling down on their secrecy and stating outright that they haven’t shared all the upcoming news. Fine, keep your secrets.
For me, this major update marks the beginning of a new kind of season for Helldivers 2, as well as a new cadence for releases. Seeing Arrowhead start to take their time to really flesh out certain ideas and mechanics is a relief after releasing new content at an alarming rate in the first few months of Helldivers 2, and it seems to be going down well with fans. Updates have started to solidify into more impactful patches that aren’t as game-breaking, and after a particularly turbulent period following the game’s PSN connection debacle, fans have appreciated the stability, as well as the ability to keep up with their new favorite game.
I wouldn’t mind if we moved to a model where we got one of these major updates every few months over the last random calendar. As impressive as it is, Helldivers 2’s early content drops and surprises still felt untenable, and this new update feels much healthier for everyone involved. Plus, putting a date on a bunch of new content really makes me look forward to diving back into the game when Helldivers 2 gets its first major update in just two weeks.