Helldivers 2 Patch 1.000.102 Makes Chargers and Bile Titans Easier to Deal With, but Has ‘Not Reduced Difficulty’

Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead has released a new patch that makes the game’s toughest enemies easier to deal with.

Patch 1.000.102 deals with the spawn rate of heavily armored Terminid enemies as well as the possible play against them. It also fixes some user interface elements and crash issues.

The new patch follows the release of Helldivers 2’s first balance patch, which sparked something of a backlash within the community for making it harder to kill heavily armored enemies such as the Bile Titan and, particularly, the Charger.

Last week’s patch nerfed the Breaker, Railgun, and Shield Generator Backpack, three items considered essential to higher difficulty play and Helldivers 2’s best loadouts. On higher difficulties, Helldivers 2 throws an often overwhelming number of powerful enemies at you, many of which require hard-hitting weapons and stratagems to deal with. The Railgun in particular was a popular option for taking them on.

Since the release of the patch, players have complained about struggling to deal with these heavy enemies and their apparent increased spawn rate on harder difficulties, behind which Helldivers 2’s most valuable resources are locked.

Social media and the Helldivers subreddit and Discord have seen a number of screenshots and videos showing a quite ridiculous number of Titans and Chargers on-screen at once, with players expressing their disbelief.

What are we supposed to do with 5 bile titans and 7 charges spawning all at once on a tiny eradicate missions? | #Helldivers2

🔗 KuronekoBestGirl pic.twitter.com/kCwL6PoFJ2

— HELLDIVERS 2 Updates (@Helldivers2HQ) March 7, 2024

In response, Arrowhead issued a post on the Helldivers Discord to say it planned to make heavy enemies easier to deal with, both in terms of their spawn rate and health, and it has now done so. “The amount of heavily armored targets that spawn on higher difficulties, especially for Terminids, have been a big discussion point online and internally,” Arrowhead said in a post on the Helldivers 2 Steam page. “The intent is for groups to have to bring some form of anti-tank capability but not to the degree previously needed.

“To that end we have reduced the spawn rate of Chargers and Bile Titans on difficulties 7 and up. In addition we have reduced the risk of spawn spikes of Chargers and Bile Titans.”

However, Arrowhead stressed that it has not reduced the difficulty of Helldivers 2, rather it has changed the distribution of enemy types. So, players should expect other enemy types to appear in greater numbers from now on.

Specifically on the Charger, perhaps Helldivers 2’s toughest enemy, Arrowhead has now moved to tackle the “leg meta”, which involves spending precious anti-tank weapons on the Terminid’s legs instead of more obvious weak points. Arrowhead said this “seems counter to expectation.”

“We are humbled by the community’s ability to find things like Chargers ‘leg meta’ in our game, however spending your heavy anti-tank weapons on legs instead of the obvious weak point seems counter to expectation,” Arrowhead explained.

“We are not changing anything regarding the Charger’s legs, we are however lowering the health of the Charger’s head. It should now be at a point where a well-placed shot from a Recoilless Rifle or EAT-17 instantly kills a charger.

“Together with the unfortunately undocumented change of last patch that increased the armor penetration ability of less well-placed shots for EAT-17s and Recoilless Rifle shots, Chargers should now be easier to handle by well-equipped groups.”

Helldivers 2’s upcoming premium Warbond, dubbed Cutting Edge, launches this week, hot on the heels of the release of mechs. The Warbond includes new weapons, new armor sets, new capes, and new emotes. Meanwhile, Arrowhead has asked for the Helldivers 2 community’s help in coming up with ideas for the “hard to solve” problem of players kicking teammates who don’t have meta loadouts.

Helldivers 2 has become one of the surprise hits of 2024 since launching in February, topping the charts on Steam and reportedly selling around three million copies. According to at least one analyst, it’s still growing. Check out IGN’s Helldivers 2 review to find out why it’s going down so well.

Helldivers 2 Update 1.000.102 Patch Notes:

Overview

Today’s patch is dealing with the spawn rate of heavily armored Terminid enemies as well as the possible play against them. It also contains some fixes to UI elements and crash fixes.

Balancing

Enemies:

• The amount of heavily armored targets that spawn on higher difficulties, especially for Terminids, have been a big discussion point online and internally. The intent is for groups to have to bring some form of anti-tank capability but not to the degree previously needed.
• To that end we have reduced the spawn rate of Chargers and Bile Titans on difficulties 7 and up. In addition we have reduced the risk of spawn spikes of Chargers and Bile Titans.
• Please note that we have changed the distribution of enemy types, not reduced difficulty. Expect other enemy types to appear in greater numbers instead.
• We are humbled by the community’s ability to find things like Chargers “leg meta” in our game, however spending your heavy anti tank weapons on legs instead of the obvious weak point seems counter to expectation.
• We are not changing anything regarding the Charger’s legs, we are however lowering the health of the Charger’s head. It should now be at a point where a well placed shot from a Recoilless Rifle or EAT-17 instantly kills a charger.
• Together with the unfortunately undocumented change of last patch that increased the armor penetration ability of less well placed shots for EAT-17s and Recoilless Rifle shots, Chargers should now be easier to handle by well equipped groups.

Gameplay

• “Electronic Countermeasures” operation modifier, which had a chance of giving you a random stratagem instead of the one you input, has been removed in order to be reworked, and will be reintroduced in a future iteration. We found that this modifier wasn’t communicated clearly enough and overall caused more frustration than excitement with the way it was currently implemented. This change was made in 1.000.100 but was unintentionally omitted from the patch notes.

Fixes

• Fixed missing text on several HUD / UI elements.
• Fixed several subtitle / VO mismatches in the news videos.
• Fixed various crashes that occurred mid-gameplay and when deploying to missions.

Known Issues

• Game crashes when attempting to use a stim while inside an Exosuit.
• Pink artifacts may appear in the sky when setting off large explosions.
• Automaton Dropship seemingly disappears and slides in after being shot down.
• Shots from arc-based weapons may not count towards kills in post-mission stats.
• Players cannot unfriend other players befriended via friend code.
• Cross-platform friend invites might not show up in the friend requests tab.
• Players may be unable to select loadout or return to ship when joining a multiplayer game session via PS5 Activity Card.
• The Exosuit can destroy itself with rockets if it fires while turning.
• Text chat box display is obstructed by the cinematic letterboxing during extraction.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.