The worst Helldivers 2 weapon has become one of the best overnight

The Railgun has been dethroned. The one-shot-kill support weapon that could tear through enemies of every toughness at a steady pace has been brought back down to Super Earth with nerfs to its penetration and non-weak-point damage.

With the power vacuum left in its wake, helldivers across the galaxy have gone back to the drawing board looking for a worthy replacement in their loadouts. An early frontrunner has emerged from an unlikely source: the Flamethrower.

At launch, Helldivers 2's Flamethrower was considered so bad that, when my friends and I would find a free one lying around on a map, we'd ignore it. The support weapon was slow to kill even small bugs or automatons, and had the annoying habit of self-immolation when burning enemies closed the distance on you. It was a hindrance, but as noticed by Reddit user BadassMinh, the post-patch Flamethrower has evolved into a Terminid-melting machine.

«Flamethrowers can kill Chargers quite fast now,» the post proclaimed. The accompanying video looked impressive, and the Flamethrower did get a damage buff in the patch, so I decided to try it myself.

Turns I hadn't actually unlocked the Flamethrower yet despite being level 26 (that's how bad it was). I jumped into a difficulty 5 bug mission with some randos. Nobody said anything, but I could feel their eyebrows rising as I locked in a pyromaniac build. 

It was love at first barbeque. My earlier attempts to make the Flamethrower useful had all ended in tragedy, but within seconds with Flamethrower 2.0 I was cooking hordes of bugs like instant popcorn. No standard bugs (or teammates) could get within an arm's length without poofing into a pile of ash.

But the Flamethrower's true test was against Helldivers 2's persistent and deadly Chargers. Reddit wasn't lying: Chargers do go down pretty quick if you keep a steady flame on them. It's slower than the old Railgun, but competitive against the Recoilless Rifle and similar to the newly buffed Laser Cannon. It's really good, in