GamesThird Person ShooterHelldivers 2Helldivers 2’s annoying armored enemies are getting nerfed, devs look to tone down “spawn rates and health pools"When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
GamesThird Person ShooterHelldivers 2Helldivers 2’s annoying armored enemies are getting nerfed, devs look to tone down “spawn rates and health pools"When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Arrowhead Game Studios)

In a post to the game’s official Discord, published earlier today on the heels ofa balance patch which made many heavy enemies even harder to deal withand subsequentlyignited some ugly debates, community manager Spitz shared some good news:
“I wanted to take a moment this afternoon to let you all know that we’ve heard your concerns over the last few days regarding enemy spawns, enemy armor, and the ability to kill these enemies. As we’ve said before, our teams are always taking in player feedback and looking at how we can tweak the game to ensure that it is fair, enjoyable and provides the best experience for everyone.
“I can confirm that we’re currently looking at changes to the spawn rates and health pools of heavy enemies, and will be attempting to spread them out more to prevent large spikes of tougher mobs appearing at the same time, as well as making them a bit easier to bring down. This change should go out in a future hotfix - no date as of yet. Thanks as always for your patience!”
The enemies themselves are fine in isolation, but when the battlefield has more big dudes than a Strongman competition, things can fall apart quickly. Yourbest Helldivers 2 Stratagemsare on cooldown, your grenades may as well be paper balls, and your heavy weapon – whether it’s a railgunor a new favorite like the flamethrower– can only fire so fast.
While the actual in-game changes remain to be seen, this statement does address the biggest pain points in the Helldivers 2 community. Simply put, there are too many dang armored enemies and not enough anti-armor options to handle them. Out of absolutely nowhere, entire packs of Charger bugs and Hulk bots will roll up, or fall out of the freakin' sky, and absolutely ruin your day with impunity, and this only gets worse as you crank up thedifficulty in Helldivers 2, perhaps in pursuit of those elusive super rare samples.
Meaningful changes to this enemy class, more than any weapon tweak, have the potential to shift the meta and dramatically improve the high-level experience, so here’s hoping this update and its attached hotfix come soon.
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As an added bonus, Smitz added in an update: “In addition, we forgot to mention (oops) that the EAT-17 and Recoilless Rifle no longer suffer from a 50% damage decrease when hitting an armored enemy at a ‘glance angle’ that deflects the shot. Combined with the upcoming adjustment to health and spawn rates, this should make the larger enemies a bit less common, instead spawning more ‘chaff’ enemies to support them, and should allow players to bring these enemies down with a single well-placed shot. Hopefully this leads to less instances of endless kiting and players being left without any effective weaponry to kill harder enemies.”
Here’s the hard place to go with the rock: as Helldivers 2 players all-in on anti-tank Stratagems,dev advises “tailoring their loadouts to kill weaker stuff” too because guns are intentionally wimpy.
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1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
1Nemesis review: “A magical sense of tension”
1
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2Arcs review: “A whole lot of game in a small package”
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3Path of Exile 2 review: “A stellar start to a thrilling and brutal dark adventure”
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4Indiana Jones and the Great Circle review: “The best adventure Indy has embarked on in over 30 years”
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4The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim review – “An uninspired expansion of the most iconic screen take on Tolkien”
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5Creature Commandos review: “James Gunn’s heartwarming, R-rated tale about super-monsters proves that the DCU is in good hands”
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Creature Commandos review: “James Gunn’s heartwarming, R-rated tale about super-monsters proves that the DCU is in good hands”