Helldivers 2's latest patch, Into the Unjust: 6.0.1., is rolling out now, adding a playable tank and interchangeable victory poses and emotes as part of a push towards the liberation of the Cyborg homeworld, Cyberstan.
"We have confirmed, with concrete proof and beyond any doubt, that the Automaton Collective stole our schematics for the Star of Peace. We cannot let them turn this defensive tool of peace into a destructive weapon of war," developer Arrowhead teased. "It's now up to you, our most elite and powerful force, to bring them to justice on their own turf.
"We have approved the deployment of new equipment for squads to aid in the swift elimination of the Automaton threat. Push toward Cyberstan and end this insult to Managed Democracy. Helldivers, let this be the last time the Automatons steal from Super Earth."
Highlights of the patch include the Bastion Tank, a new tank vehicle that is "ready to roll over entrenched enemies," and "offering unrivaled firepower and defense on the battlefield." Be warned, though — "it will require your team to work together to hunt down the enemy!"
You'll also see a 50% increase to base melee attack, changes to enemy behavior, and a trickier challenge in the game's hardest difficulties, with Arrowhead explaining that the "biggest change should be noticed on the Automaton front while Terminids and the Illuminate are less affected."
As for those aftermentioned Automatons? There's nothing specific about them in the patch notes beyond a cursory note that it's now confirmed that it was the Automatons that stole the Star of Peace schematics, but a fan-run Twitter/X account dedicated to Helldivers found this to share with us:
Cyborgs 💀 #Helldivers2 pic.twitter.com/SBVhHYDm7W
Helldivers 2 update 6.0.1 patch notes:
*** INCOMING MESSAGE FROM HIGH COMMAND ***
We have confirmed, with concrete proof and beyond any doubt, that the Automaton Collective stole our schematics for the Star of Peace. We cannot let them turn this defensive tool of peace into a destructive weapon of war. It's now up to you, our most elite and powerful force, to bring them to justice on their own turf.
We have approved the deployment of new equipment for squads to aid in the swift elimination of the Automaton threat.
Push toward Cyberstan and end this insult to Managed Democracy. Helldivers, let this be the last time the Automatons steal from Super Earth.
📍 Patch Highlights
⚖️ Balancing
General changes overview
Melee weapons and Armor passive with increased melee damage re-balance
SMG and Pistol rounds less Sway
Unify Weapon function directions inputs
Difficulty on difficulty 9+
Made changes across all factions to increase the intensity on high difficulties, the biggest change should be noticed on the Automaton front while Terminids and the Illuminate are less affected.
Value changes
Primary weapons
R-2124 Constitution
R-2 Amendment
MP-98 Knight
SMG-37 Defender
SMG-72 Pummeler
M7S SMG
SG-20 Halt
DBS-2 Double Freedom
Sidearms weapons
P-72 Crisper
P-2 Peacemaker
LAS-58 Talon
GP-31 Grenade Pistol
LAS-7 Dagger
P-113 Verdict
M6C/SOCOM Pistol
PLAS-15 Loyalist
P-11 Stim Pistol
SG-22 Bushwhacker
P-4 Senator
GP-20 Ultimatum
CQC-30 Stun Baton
CQC-19 Stun Lance
CQC-2 Saber
CQC-5 Combat Hatchet
CQC-42 Machete
Throwables
G-7 Pineapple
G-31 Arc
Stratagems
SH-20 Ballistic Shield Backpack
Orbital Smoke Strike
CQC-9 Defoliation Tool
CQC-1 One True Flag
RS-422 Railgun
StA-X3 W.A.S.P. Launcher
GL-21 Grenade Launcher
Armor passives
Peak Physique
Rock Solid
Reinforced Epaulettes
Enemies
General
Some enemies have had their damage vs durable rebalanced to adjust for Helldiver vehicles with large health pools. It will not change their effectiveness against normal Helldivers, only their vehicles.
Things like attacks from Bile Titans, Chargers, Crescent Overseers, Overseers, Rocket firing Automatons, Hulk melee attacks, mortars, acid etc have gotten values adjusted. Some of the adjustments only affect certain targets (ie the Bastion). Other adjustments also affect the FRV and Exosuits.
Enemies Aim calculations were not always updated when there were many enemies trying to aim, making Automatons on higher difficulties a bit bad at aiming. They should now attempt to update the aim better considering the data they have before they get another proper aim update. This means that Automatons will aim better even when there are a lot of them without any further cost to performance.
Terminids
Dragon roach
Automatons
Rocket Raider
Devastator
Rocket Devastator
Hulk Bruiser
Gunship
Illuminate
Overseer
Crescent Overseer
🎮 Gameplay
Emotes and Victory poses
Emotes and victory poses are now interchangeable. Except for a few exceptions like emotes that require 2 people, the kick and a few others, all the victory poses can now be used as emotes and all emotes can now be used as victory poses
🔧 Fixes
Hang Detection
As part of our ongoing war against bugs and instability we have introduced a “hang detection” feature in the PC version. If the game hangs (freezes) for more than 20 seconds then this new feature will crash the game instead of letting it stay hung. This generates a file called a “crash dump” which contains important debugging information for our programmers to diagnose and fix the root cause of the hang.
If you experience a hang, please wait at least 40 seconds before restarting your PC to allow the hang detector to do its job.
If you experience a 20+ second hang followed by a crash:
With your help, we can eliminate these issues once and for all!
Crash Fixes
Weapons & Stratagem Fixes
P-92 Warrant
Enemies
Miscellaneous Fixes
Optimizations
Helldivers 2's next Warbond, Siege Breakers, is out today, February 3, as part of this update. As detailed in a recent post, this Warbond is for players needing "something to smash through […] towering foe with impenetrable fortifications,"… which I'm pretty sure means it's needed by all of us.
Don't forget that February will a "month of anniversary surprises" as Helldivers 2 hits its second anniversary. To kick us off, Arrowhead formally introduced us to the "face of Freedom, the voice of Victory, the light of Liberty," John Helldiver himself.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
