Helldivers 2 1.001.002 patch notes ushers in the Escalation of Freedom

The Helldivers 2 Escalation of Freedom update is now here, and with it brings the latest update - patch 1.001.002. Check out the patch notes below to see all the changes and new content.

Patch 1.001.002 overview

This patch is a big one! With the Escalation of Freedom update, the game has received a new difficulty, mission objectives, enemies, a new world type and environmental hazard, and much more.

On top of all this is a number of bug fixes and balances that should bring some fan-favourite weapons back into grace. Check out the full notes below.

Full patch notes

Major Updates

• Difficulty Level 10 - Super Helldive
• A new, extreme difficulty level designed for the most experienced and skilled Helldivers, featuring formidable new enemies and intense challenges.

• New mission objectives
• Two new secondary objectives will soon be active on a planet near you! These faction-specific optional objectives will have you assaulting Automaton human processing plants to destroy their evil Bio-Processor, and venturing deep into Terminid territory to extract with a living larva sample that the bugs will do anything to get back!

• Bigger enemy outposts
• Assault Terminid strongholds and Automaton fortresses in the new difficulty Super Helldive.
• The challenge will be great but the rewards even greater. Search the conquered outposts thoroughly for the confidential data and make sure to extract with it. May liberty guide your path.

• New Bugs and Bots
• New and enhanced threats to freedom emerge.
• Guess who’s back to bug you again? The Impaler returns, burrowing its head and popping tentacles from the ground to catch you off guard. Watch out for its lethal limbs, but don’t miss its weak spot when it digs in - it seems like self-preservation still isn’t its strong suit!
• The Impaler however is not all. Prepare for the rest of the formidable foes! The Rocket Tank rolls in with heavy armour and devastating firepower. The Reinforced Scout Strider now has its previously vulnerable spot fortified and boasts two rockets on each side for greater firepower! The Spore Charger fearlessly invades through the thick acidic fog, accompanied by an Alpha Commander, watch out for its friends!

• New swamp planet
• Prepare to dive down into an eerie and foggy version of the swamp planet. Keep your wits about you and do not let fear take hold.

• New environmental hazards
• Acid Storms - Temporarily lowers armour for enemies and the player. Make use of this but stay on high alert Helldivers.

Balancing

• SG-8S Slugger
• Increased stagger force
• Increased spread
• Increased drag

• SG-225IE Breaker Incendiary
• Decreased number of magazines from 6 to 4
• Increased recoil from 28 to 41

• GP-31 Grenade Pistol
• Decreased ammo capacity from 8 to 6
• Increased the number of rounds replenished from an ammo box from 2 to 4

• CB-9 Exploding Crossbow
• Is now one-handed

• AX/AR-23 Guard Dog
• Increased number of magazines from 6 to 8

• Orbital Walking Barrage
• Increased number of salvos 3 to 5
• Decreased movement speed by 40%

• Orbital 120mm HE Barrage
• Decreased cooldown from 240s to 180s
• Reduced time between salvoes

Gameplay

• The operation modifier Atmospheric Interference has been removed,
• Additionally for the automatons we added the modifier "Poor Intel" which makes objectives on the map to get a search radius just like most Eliminate objectives already has.
• Corrosive acid planets no longer have the Intense Heat environment modifier.
• Gunship Patrols are now less frequent and the amount of ships are reduced.
• Gunship Engines are less durable now.
• Improved armoury weapon preview controls.
• Updated orders UI.
• Energy shields such as the Shield Generator Pack and Shield Generator Relay now block snowstorms as well as sandstorms.
• A new grief protection system has been added that allows kicked players to continue in their own mission. This allows players to complete the mission and get full rewards despite being kicked.

Fixes

Crash fixes

• Decreased the chance of crashing when pressing alt+tab while using exclusive fullscreen window mode. (Windows)
• Fixed rare crash which could occur while browsing Warbonds.
• Fixed rare crash which could occur when switching tabs in the loadout.
• Fixed rare crash which could occur when inviting PSN friends to a session. (PS5)
• Fixed rare crash which could occur when selecting a booster in the loadout.
• Fixed crash which could occur when browsing the acquisition centre menus and alt-tabbing. (Windows)
• Fixed rare crash which could occur in the loadout after joining a game.
• Fixed crash which could occur when ragdolling into barbed wire.
• Fixed crash which could occur when joining a mission with active vehicle skins from disconnected players.
• Fixed crash which could occur when peers with unique skins would get kicked or disconnected.

Weapons and Stratagems fixes

• FS-55 Devastator armour
• Fixed incorrect description.

• ARC-12 Blitzer
• You can now hold the fire button to shoot continuously.

• ARC-12 Blitzer, Plasma Punisher
• Added missing armour penetration tags.

• GP-31 Grenade Pistol, LAS-7 Dagger, SG-22 Bushwacker
• Moved into a Special sidearm category.

• LAS-16 SIckle
• Fixed incorrect fire limit value in the weapon stats.

• SH-20 Ballistic Shield Backpack
• No longer blocks the enemies line of sight.
• No longer collides with the combat walker.
• Fixed a bug where picking up an SSSD drive would cause ballistic shields to be dropped.
• Fixed ballistic shield to not collide with player as long as wielded.

• AX/AR-23 Guard Dog
• Can now be refilled from ammo boxes found on the map

Misc weapon fixes

• Fixed a bug where weapons would be held sideways after interrupting a stratagem with a stim heal.
• Fixed arc weapons not shooting out any bolts when line of sight to enemy is blocked by an obstacle. Bolts will now fire but they will hit the obstacle. The misfires did not give the player sufficient feedback. We hope this makes the weapon operation clearer.
• Fixed arc weapons misfiring when shooting enemies quickly that are aligned horizontally.
• Added in missing haptics when firing the AR-61 Tenderizer.

Social menu fixes

• General improvements to the social menu systems.
• Resolved some issues related to inconsistent social menu options.
• Fixed issues regarding squad menu block button.
• Fixed Various UI issues in the social menu.
• The “Block menu” now more accurately shows blocked players.
• Improvements to recent players tab.
• Improved reliability of social menu options.
• Resolved issues related to friend code generation.
• Reduced occurrences of ‘please wait democratically’.
• Players should find it easier to join one anothers games.
• Players should find it easier to send/accept/decline friend requests.
• Improved UX for ‘dangerous’ actions (kick/block/unfriend).

Miscellaneous fixes

• Fixed a game soft lock where the extraction shuttle would sink into the ground preventing players from extracting.
• Fixed being able to click hidden items (ie- items that have scrolled out of view) in the settings and bindings menus.
• Game no longer hangs on quit after changing the crossplay setting.
• Fixed hellpods not destroying trees in the swamp biome.
• Weapons supporting auto reload retries could reload twice if interrupted in the final stage and firing occurred before resuming. Auto reload retries can now be canceled by pressing reload.
• Resolved an issue where transitions into jog and sprint animations would be delayed if spammed.
• Reduced the intensity of the Experimental Infusion booster visual effect.
• Fixed missing description from Experimental Infusion booster
• Fix Helldivers's prone rotation being reset after dodging while aiming.
• Fixed stamina bar not respecting the stamina visibility HUD setting.
• Fixed section number of owned stratagems not updating on purchase.
• Fixed Hologram map preview not showing extraction point.
• Improved performance of terrain destruction.
• Fix stuck helldivers in cryo chambers after cutscene interruptions triggered by the host.
• Improvements to the physics of the Ballistic Shield Stratagem as well as some bugs related to physics.
• Fixed effects tab top title not showing correctly in Portuguese.
• Fixed discarding when changing settings menu after changing resolution, render scale or screen device without applying.
• Fixed special characters not showing in player names when picking up items.
• Fixed the issue where players couldn't press ESC to discard resolution changes on the popup.
• Fixed naming of Shrieker nests as Bug holes when pinging.
• Hive Breaker Drill now does damage when dropped in Nuke Nursery Chamber missions.
• Fixed weapon aim modes (both global and per weapon) not being remembered between closing and re-opening the game.
• Fixed progress bar not showing for Raise the flag objective.
• Adjusted flame effects to work more realistically.
• It doesn't go through various bodies/objects where bounce off would be the expected behavior, like on armors and static objects.
• Fixed issue where minimap would allow interactions during ion storms.
• Changing text language in-game will no longer cause terminals to appear blank.
• Fixed a bug where equipping a skin from the Warbond's purchase confirmation menu would reset the player's armor selection.
• Hellpod skins are now visible on ships; initial hellpod drops from host ships will share the host's skin selection, while subsequent reinforcements will use individual skin selections.
• Samples are transferred to the shuttle when boarding, dying inside the shuttle won't drop samples.
• Reverting to default settings on a tab will no longer overwrite settings in other tabs.
• The minimap now closes, if open, when exiting an Exo-Suit.
• Loadout menu call-in times now include transportation time, aligning with in-game values.
• Hellbomb stratagem will now be visible on the HUD when you are near an objective where it can be called down.
• Applied fix to avoid that multiple stratagems - SOS beacon, sentries, resupply pod - would deploy inside of the Escape Pod.
• Added graphics settings preset for Steam Deck.
• Helldivers may now use stims while at full health for their other democratic effects.
• “Kill x amount of enemies by guard dogs" personal orders can now be completed.
• The latest warbond released will now appear at the top of the warbonds list.
• Fix "[0/0]" being displayed in assassinate missions.
• Fixed bug causing equipment previews to load indefinitely.
• Fixed teammates picking up an item not showing the name in their color.
• Fixed text chat cursor not working.
• Implemented a more informative Quickplay toggle button.
• Fixed effects tab sometimes showing scrambled.
• Fixed mines being invisible for hot-joining players.
• Additionally, fixed a bug causing recently deployed mines to become invisible.
• Mines will no longer detonate if they are shot through a Shield Generator Relay bubble from the exterior or situated behind a solid obstacle and shot at.
• Display hit markers for all weapons.
• Fixed mute icon not showing when player muted.
• Fixed bug when using a stim which canceled other players' sprint.
• Fixed stimming animation while holding an Expendable AT.
• Gone in 360 seconds trophy now awarded on difficulties greater than or equal to 6 rather than only on difficulty 6.
• If a hellbomb is destroyed while it's armed and the timer is active it will explode.
• Fixed issue where the player can throw an unlimited amount of grenades/throwing knives after diving off of a ledge while holding and then throwing the last throwable.
• Fixed another issue where the player would hold an invisible grenade/throwing knife if they still had any left after hitting the ground in the same way.
• Added TOGGLE MICROPHONE option to toggle the microphone activity for voice chat.
• Sentries now won't try and attack certain buildings, and bullet sentries don't waste ammo on dropships.
• Fixed HUD Info feed visibility setting not working correctly.
• Fixed HUD Stratagem Visibility setting showing stratagems UI when set to hidden and opening the map.
• Fixed UI sometimes showing the wrong amount of bug holes destroyed.
• Patriot Exosuit missiles no longer self inflict damage.
• Fix explosions not working from far distances against armored enemies.
• Fixed issue when not being able to text chat when in loadout and the rest of the team is on the mission.
• Fixed issues with Mission Control Radio voiceover not triggering.
• Fixed a bug where changing VO language could take a very long time (sometimes forever) to apply.
• Fixed issue that was leading the account linking menu to close automatically if it's being accessed through the in-game settings and the user's account was already linked.
• Defend event progress now properly shown in mission end sequence.
• Fixed effects tab sometimes showing scrambled text.

Known Issues

• We are aware and currently investigating some performance issues with difficulty 10, we have begun working on a fix
• Game may display an infinite loading screen if a player disconnects during the deployment cutscene.
• Players may sometimes not receive Friend Requests sent from another platform.
• "Invite only" games created by a Friend can still be seen on the Galactic War map but cannot be joined.
• “Conduct Geological Survey” mission may become incompletable if a player calls in “Seismic Probe” and immediately leaves the game or disconnects.
• Bile Titan sometimes does not take damage to the head.
• Enemies that bleed out do not progress Personal Orders and Eradicate missions.
• Dead massive enemies may sometimes launch the helldiver into the air.
• Most weapons shoot below the crosshair when aiming down the sights.
• Flamethrowers fired from inside the Shield Generator Relay cannot damage enemies.
• Chain-link fences block flamethrowers’ fire.
• Stratagem beam might attach itself to an enemy but it will deploy to its original location.
• “Guard Dog Rover” does not overheat when firing continuously.
• Reinforcement may not be available for players who join a game in progress.
• Service Technician on the ship cannot be interacted with - they complained they were bothered too much and could not do their work efficiently.
• Enemies can sometimes shoot through obstacles