Helldivers 2 just got some long-requested changes in its new patch

Players have been eagerly waiting for another Helldivers 2 update, and now it’s here, bringing with it massive updates to Stratagems, the galactic map, lobbies, and more.

Patch 01.000.400 released on Thursday, and the patch notes are quite extensive. What most players will notice though are the balance changes to certain weaker Stratagems. For example, the Orbital Gatling Barrage got an increased fire rate, more rounds, increased armor penetration, and a decreased cooldown time. The MG-206 Heavy Machine Gun can now deal more projectile damage — increased from 100 to 150 — and decreased reload time, although it also got a slightly decreased fire rate.

According to the post, the goal was to make the strategems more, well, balanced with each other.

“With these balance changes we wanted to buff up some of the weaker Stratagems to make them more viable and add more possibility for variety in the loadouts,” the notes read. “We also changed a few to make them more consistent, but the goal was to keep a similar or higher power level.”

Another big change comes to the galactic map, with the addition of supply lines. While they were originally not included for visibility purposes, developer Arrowhead Game Studios added them based on player feedback. So now, players can see which planets are ready for battle much more clearly. Devs also added origin of attacks to the map so players can see where attacks are coming from. These tend to play a huge part in major orders as enemy factions launch strikes, so players can now potentially cut them off at the source.

Finally, the patch introduces invite-only lobbies. Other smaller changes were brought to weather effects, super sample spawning, fire tornadoes, and more. You can read the full patch notes for yourself, but generally, they all feel like great ways to improve and smooth out the play experience, make hazards easier to deal with (especially