As Helldivers 2 players grill Arrowhead over more nerfs, its CEO speaks to the "buff everything" and "it's too easy" crowds: "We are listening and will tweak"

Instead of setting hearts blazing with democratic enthusiasm, the big Helldivers 2 Escalation of Freedom update has become a hotbed of division, with many players grilling developer Arrowhead over a perceived heel-turn on weapon balancing in the run-up to Helldivers 2's Freedom's Flame Warbond. Sifting through the ashes, studio CEO Shams Jorjani says the devs are paying attention and "we'll tweak again" as needed. 

The spark that truly lit this fire was tucked away in the Escalation of Freedom patch notes. Fire damage was adjusted, purportedly to behave more realistically, but the in-game effects of this change dramatically reduced the potency of weapons like the flamethrower. You know, the fire weapon, the one that players fell in love with post-buff as a solid anti-Charger option, and the one that was perfectly positioned to reach glorious new heights with the fire-themed Warbond packing fire-resistant armor. Instead, as countless white-hot Reddit posts excoriate, "they nerfed the flamethrower" and it's not very good against armored enemies anymore. 

Pair that with more difficult tier-10 missions packing hordes of armored enemies, nerfs to fan favorites like the Breaker Incendiary, and the release of an underwhelming mine Stratagem that players had understandably avoided until now. The Helldivers 2 community has suddenly been transported back to the days of May 2024, when mounting balance complaints prompted the game's director to admit that "it feels like every time someone finds something fun, the fun is removed." 

Jorjani agreed that "we don't think weapons are as fun as they could be," even if that doesn't make it reasonable to threaten people over weapon balance, and suggested a more buff-loaded philosophy for the game. There were some buffs in today's patch, to be fair, and buff-loaded doesn't mean nerf-free, but the huge and frankly out-of-season nerfs to fire damage have dominated conversations around Escalation of Freedom's launch for a reason. Stop me if