Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead has revealed the PC and PlayStation 5 co-op shooter’s next Premium Warbond, dubbed Chemical Agents, alongside a September 19 release date.
While Chemical Agents does not include any new weapons, it adds two stratagem variants — the TX-41 Sterilizer, which lets you spray a gas at the Terminids and Automatons, and the Guard Dog’s ‘Dog Breath,’ which is a corrosive gas sprayer — and, in keeping with the alien exterminator theme, the G-4 Gas grenade, which covers the whole area in a cloud of noxious fumes.
Explaining the decision to include new stratagem variants but no new weapons, Katherine Baskin, social media and community manager at Arrowhead, said in a post on the PlayStation Blog: “Adding stratagem variants to Warbonds is new with Chemical Agents, but our designers felt that since gas is a crowd control tool, it made more sense to release stratagems and let Helldivers choose the primary weapons they love the most.
“Not only that, but this is bringing some serious variety to Chemical Agents that we hope players will enjoy.”
As you’d expect, the Warbond also adds new armor, which has the Advanced Filtration passive (gives the player resistance to the gas clouds they’ll be generating), new capes, new patterns, and new emotes, including the co-emote Natural Gas Extraction (you get another player to pull your finger). There’s even an ‘Ew’ victory pose for use back on the ship.
Elsewhere, there are new player banners, a new player title, and a new utility: the P-11 Stim Pistol, which lets you shoot minor heals.
As with previous Premium Warbonds, expect Freedom’s Flame to cost 1,000 Super Credits. While you can earn Super Credits from gameplay and the warbond itself, you can also buy them for real-world money. Via the in-game shop, 1,000 Super Credits costs $9.99. Premium Warbonds do not expire, so you can work your way through them at your own pace safe in the knowledge their items will remain available.
Chemical Agents launches two days after Helldivers 2’s hotly anticipated 01.001.007 update, which goes live on September 17. Arrowhead has been teasing its patch notes, which promise to buff many of the game’s weapons and stratagems as the developer battles to bring Helldivers 2’s somewhat disgruntled playerbase back on-side following a rocky few months.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.