Arrowhead CEO says Helldivers 2 balancing patches have 'gone too far' recently: 'It feels like every time someone finds something fun, the fun is removed'

I don't envy the folks at Arrowhead charged with balancing Helldivers 2 guns fans have grown attached to. Arrowhead has rolled out a handful of sweeping balance patches in the game's first few months, all of which I believe made the game better by both buffing guns with untapped potential and, less often, nerfing a weapon that's dominant to the point of being boring.

But there's an argument to be made that balancing shouldn't be taken so seriously in a purely PvE shooter like Helldivers 2, and that it's ok if one gun is dealing more damage than the rest. Replying to a player on Twitter who said recent patches have made the game «unplayable,» Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt conceded that he's not satisfied with his studio's current balancing approach.

«Hey, yeah I think we've gone too far in some areas. Will talk to the team about the approach to balance,» he wrote. «It feels like every time someone finds something fun, the fun is removed.»

In a followup tweet, Pilestedt says he's seeing «a bit too much balancing using damage instead of other measures such as recoil, reload speeds, accuracy, projectile speeds and equip speeds. Just tweaking damage numbers is a blunt tool.»

The exchange was not in reference to any specific nerfs, so it's hard to pin down exactly what Pilestedt has in mind here. The last sweeping balancing patch deployed in late April could be described as 'too many damage tweaks,' but many guns also received non-damage alterations like magazine size, recoil, and recharge time.

It's possible Pilestedt is thinking about the main subject of yesterday's 1.000.302 patch, the Eruptor rifle. What's interesting about the Eruptor, a new primary rifle, is that it was nerfed because it was too dangerous for everyone around it. The patch notes read:

Let's zoom out for some context: The Eruptor is a primary gun added in last month's Democratic Detonation warbond. It doesn't fire bullets, but rather micro missiles that deal AoE explosive damage on impact. Until