Helldivers 2's Eruptor overhaul is a big win for players
Players looking for a more collaborative and immersive shooter experience in 2024 have flocked to Helldivers 2 in droves, and it's hard to blame them. After all, the guise of democracy and doing the right thing for our beloved Super Earth is more than enough to mobilise many toward a life killing bugs.
In spite of its differences from the leading shooters, there are still similar issues that plague Helldivers 2. As players have suffered a gradual break in one weapon's operations, Arrowhead Game Studios has come through with a fix - much to the relief of Helldivers.
Helldivers 2's Eruptor was causing serious damage (but not to bugs)
Click to enlargeOver the last few days, players have been reporting frustrations with the R-36 Eruptor. It's led them to do unfortunate damage to themselves and their fellow freedom fighters in a bid to push back Automatons and Terminids.
Fans have pointed out that the fierce long-range weapon, which can issue major explosive damage with its shedding shrapnel, has been using its abilities a little too well. This has left players with shrapnel holes of their own making, accentuated by an expected problem with bullet ricochets.
The R-36 Eruptor is designed to breach armour, and as a result of multiple deaths at their own hands, players thought that the bullets were bouncing straight off armoured Terminid backs and into their own brains.
Shrapnel holes tend to affect productivity on the battlefield, or so we've heard. It's a confusing problem that players struggled to pin down, but luckily, Arrowhead has tidied the issue up before it grew to major status.
Arrowhead issues fixes to Helldivers 2's Eruptor
Speaking directly to players, Arrowhead Game Studios' Associate Community Manager has taken to the Helldivers 2 subreddit to tell fans that fixes are in the works. Hopefully, the R-36 Eruptor could end up being better for it.
The team reveals that tests have shown no ricochets as expected, but thanks to the claims, they've made investigations that reveal that shrapnel problem. It's designed to flake away from the blast, but moving with such force, it's killing players and creating the presumption that it was simply ricocheting.
The shrapnel is being removed, and damage is being amplified, with SpitzerFX stating that "this will, overall, be a buff to the weapon as shrapnel played an almost negligible part in the damage and power it dealt."
Aside from being great news anyway, its delivery was sweet and indicates that Arrowhead wants its community to know that it's listening to them. It's nice not to be self-detonating at all, but to hear from the team itself is all the better.
