Helldivers 2’s latest patch introduces planetary hazards and more environmental challenges

Arrowhead game Studios has released a new Helldiverse 2 patch that adds planetary dangers to the game.

Version 01.000.100 is described as a “minor” patch and is currently only available on PC, but will be coming to PlayStation 5 “soon”. The main takeaway from this update is the plethora of quality of life changes , balance updates, as well as a ton of bug fixes related to ongoing technical issues.

However, the most notable feature comes with the introduction of “Planetary Hazards” which are now active in the game. It’s unclear exactly what these hazards might be, and the patch notes are quite vague, but players must now expect to encounter more dangers as they fight for freedom across the galaxy.

Additionally, many planets have also been given additional environmental challenges, which Arrowhead says will “appear randomly during your deployment”, challenges ranging from fire tornadoes to meteor showers, and many more to discover.

In terms of balance, Eradication missions have been adjusted and now require more kills while enemies will spawn more often, adding to the pressure. The studio also notes that the time taken to complete missions was previously shorter than expected and has been fixed, so it should now take twice as long.

You can view the entire patch notes below, which also confirm numerous technical improvements, as well as the fact that party members will now take damage from fire and gas generated by other players.

Helldiverse 2 Version 01.000.100 Release Notes:

Major updates

• Active planetary risks
• Many planets now feature additional environmental challenges that will appear randomly during your deployment, from fire tornadoes to meteor showers and more.

Balancing
Eradicate Missions

• Eradication missions now require more kills and enemies spawn more often. The time required to complete the mission was previously shorter than expected and is now typically expected to take twice as long.

Primary, secondary and support weapons

• SG-225 circuit breaker
• SG-8 Punisher
• SG-225SP Spray and Pray Circuit Breaker
• RS-422 rail gun
• FLAM-40 flamethrower
• LAS-98 laser cannon

Stratagems

• Shield Generator Pack
• 120mm HE Orbital Barrage
• 380mm HE Orbital Barrage

Fixes

• Fixed armor values ​​not reducing damage as intended.
• Fixed some bugs (including tracker nests) that were unnecessarily difficult to destroy.
• Fixed antialiasing toggle not working on PS5.
• Balanced lighting on all planets to resolve cases where the game was too dark.
• Improved flashlight efficiency.
• Increased visibility in “sand rain” weather on Erata Prime.
• Updated tutorial hardware and lighting.
• Improved cases where some materials could appear blurry if the “Lighting” graphics setting was set to “Low”.
• Fixed timing issues that could occur in the main objective “Extract E-710”.
• Changed button interaction behavior for buttons in Bunker POIs. Helldivers will now let go of the button after holding it for a few seconds.
• Fixed some cases where large assets would float if the ground below exploded.
• Helldivers standing next to ICBMs during launch will be nice and toasty with a chance of not-so-spontaneous combustion.
• Fixed snowballs not being able to throw after ragdolling.
• Fixed being able to use grenades after drowning.
• The camera no longer locks on the player’s corpse or blocks spectator mode.
• Helldivers now take damage from fire, gas, etc. generated by other players.
• Armor no longer stretches when dismembered.

Known issues

These are issues that were introduced by this hotfix and are being fixed, or are from a previous release and have not yet been fixed.

• The game may crash after abandoning several high-powered stratagems in succession.
• Collecting items from caches can freeze characters in place for an extended period of time.
• Picking up items from bunkers and caches in rapid succession can make one of the items impossible to collect.
• Players cannot unfriend other players linked by a friend code.
• Players may not be able to select loadout or return to the ship when joining a multiplayer gaming session via the PS5 Activity Card.
• The Mission Objective HUD displays different numbers for the Client and Host during certain missions.
• The default armor is always displayed when viewing Warlink, regardless of what armor the player has equipped.
• The text chat box display is obstructed by cinematic letterboxing during extraction.
• Some text in the HUD/UI is missing or not displayed correctly.
• Players may experience issues when multiple players attempt to connect and/or play at the same time:
• Connection rate limitation
• Players may be disconnected during gameplay
• Various UI issues may appear when the game interacts with servers
• Some games may not be accessible to others for a short time

For more, be sure to check out our list of best multiplayer gamesas well as our list of best PS5 games.