Helldivers 2’s new premium Warbond, dubbed Cutting Edge, is out now and has added 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, Helldivers 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 immediately, 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 much 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 potentially pay-to-win? A number of weapons, gear, and armor items 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 Warbond, is that a bad thing?
That’s one of many questions currently being debated across social media, in forums, and in particular within the Helldivers Discord, where most players are pushing back on the pay-to-win accusations. “In the Helldivers community every weapon is both s**t and overpowered and the game is both pay-to-win and not worth the money,” said one user, summing things up.
Last month, the boss of Arrowhead discussed the game’s microtransactions, insisting Helldivers 2 was not pay-to-win. CEO Johan Pilestedt said: “… we really applied ourselves to not make it pay-to-win even though items are functionally different. The only item that’s pay-to-win is the revolver, which will win you any ‘cool gun’ competition. Only (minor) problem is that it’s not that good.”
Pilestedt added: “You have to earn the right to monetize. I truly believe that. If people want to support this title they have an option, but we are never forcing anyone to do so.”
It seems unlikely that Arrowhead will stray from the course it’s set out for Helldivers 2, now the game has seen two similar premium Warbonds since launch. So this debate will likely be a part of the Helldivers 2 community for many months, potentially years, to come.
Outside of the Warbond, there’s loads going on in the world of Helldivers 2 right now. Developer Arrowhead just quietly released flying bugs in the game, and last week made mechs available. 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.
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.
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