Helldivers 2’s latest patch buffs a bunch of guns, nerfs tongues, and dials down the drawbacks of using scopes

Hey, Helldivers 2’s just gotten a patch with some noteworthy balancing tweaks and fixes ahead of its latest warbond – Python Commandos – dropping. In short, a fair few guns now do more damage, some enemies have been made a tad less potent, and the drawback which usually comes with attachinga magnifying scope to your favourite bug blaster has been scaled back.

As outlined in the notes for the Into the Unjust: 5.0.0 patch, the studio have clearly spied that the weapon ergonomics penalty suffered if you equip a long-range sight to your gun was putting folks off from using such attachments. So, in order to make them “more a matter of preference”, you’ll now notice the muzzles of guns with tube red dot sights, combat scopes, and sniper scopes being a fair whack less lethargic in following where you point your crosshair. The sniper scope change also applies to the anti-materiel rifle.

Outside of that, Arrowhead have begun to implement some tweaks designed to make pistols more ideal at close range over long, while still effective enough to use. Moving to primary guns, the defender, reprimand, M7S SMG, variable, and M90A have all had their damage upped by three to 10 points, with a couple also getting durable damage boosts. The peacemaker, verdict, and M6C/SOCOM pistols have also undergone similar tweaks.

Meanwhile, war strider and bile spewer enemies have been tweaked to stagger less when hit with explosions. The stalker, on the other hand, has had its tongue attack nerfed slightly so you won’t stagger as much when slapped by the thing protruding from the bug’s meaty maw. Finally, some new unbound keybind options have been added to make quick-swapping gear easier and playing in first-person should mesh better with your field-of-view settings.

There you go. I’m going to duck talking about the bug fixes to instead mention that the Helldivers film adaptation in the works at Sony is now set to be directed by Justin Lin of Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift fame, per The Hollywood Reporter. I mention this because it’s got me wondering what the drifting equivalent of being sent flying by a rogue bug tongue is. I assume the answer’s maybe catching a kerb, rolling, and landing with your passenger’s mouth locked over your nose. That’s never happened to me, I assure you.

Make sure you tell your family about this patch and the movie. They need to know Vin Diesel’ll now have less scope trouble when he’s inevitably confirmed to be playing General Brasch.