Helldivers 2 Community Manager says next update “will see way more buffs”

Helldivers 2 has seen its share of backlash since the Escalation of Freedom update. This patch was supposed to bring the game into Arc 2 and mark the first major update that the game had seen since it was released six months prior. Instead, players were left disappointed after many weapons were nerfed, issues weren’t addressed, and it created even more problems in the game. Since then, Arrowhead Game Studios has revealed that it is working on a 60-day roadmap to rectify these issues over the next two months.

Twin Beard, the Helldivers 2 Community Manager, took to the official Discord to share some information regarding the upcoming patches. We can expect to see these during the 60-day roadmap that was announced by the developers following the Escalation of Freedom update. During a Q&A with players, Twin Beard revealed that the next update will feature a lot of buffs, which comes after the game has seen many weapons nerfed in recent months saying

“It’s unfortunate that as soon as someone says the word nerf, alarm bells go off. In larger patches there are often >100 changes. There will pretty much always be balancing both up and down in a large patch,” he said. “With that being said, we’re very aware of the sentiment and that there’s been too much balancing going on, and I can almost bet my beard that the next large patch will bring more buffs than nerfs.”

Although Helldivers 2 severely needs many weapons to be buffed, this can’t be done without the game being rebalanced, which is also planned for the next update, with Twin Beard saying

“All balancing where you turn down a stat shouldn’t be considered nerfs since it has a negative ring to it, while some are undoubtedly good for the game and very much needed. There’s a huge difference between minor tweaks and “nerfing all the favorite primaries.”

Twin Beard then went on to give examples that not every change can be classed as a buff or a nerf, citing the weather changes by saying “An example, when the weather effects were introduced, they were too frequent which caused frustration. We brought that down. By definition a nerf, but not in a negative context,” before concluding that “Balancing done right is good. Too much is bad. Again though, I’m pretty sure the next large patch will see way more buffs, so I hope the beard stays.”

The Escalation of Freedom update saw nerfs to many popular weapons, most notably the Breaker Incendiary Shotgun, which was nerfed due to it being too popular according to the Arrowhead CEO. While this did open the door for the likes of the Cookout Shotgun to shine, the Breaker Incendiary is still the best Shotgun in the game. But, until these buffs come to fruition, if they ever do, many players are left scrambling to find new load-outs. To help with this, I highly recommend checking out our Helldivers 2 best weapons guide and best armor guide.