What you should know
- A new Helldivers 2 Warbond battle pass called Cutting Edge has been announced, and was revealed with a new trailer.
- Players will get access to three armor sets, three capes, four guns, and a new stun grenade in the Warbond.
- Like items from the two Warbonds Helldivers 2 launched with, these will be unlocked with Warbond Medals earned from completing missions, planetary operations, and both major and personal orders.
- Cutting Edge is scheduled to launch on March 14, and will cost an unknown number of Super Credits to buy. If it’s like the Steeled Veterans one, players will need 1,000 Super Credits, or $10 worth (Super Credits can also be found from POIs during gameplay, notably).
Helldivers 2 has taken the globe by force by liberating gamer money everywhere. Peaking at an all-time high of over 450,000 players on Steam, it doesn’t show any real signs of slowing down. In fact, reports have come out that sales of the game have increased since it’s launch in early February, something that’s very rare in the industry.
Now, a new trailer for its upcoming Warbond: Cutting Edge battle pass dropped just a few hours ago and demands the attention of Super Earth citizens. I don’t blame you if you feel like saluting during its entirety. I know I did. You can watch it via the embed below:
Right off the bat, we’re greeted with three new armor sets — one for each weight class. Plate armors of familiar colors adorn soldiers who seem set on peak bravery on the battlefront, and the helmets of each set look quite unique; I can already see myself mixing them into my existing sets.
One of the things that’s bothered me (and it’s the smallest of complaints) is that I’ve often found myself unable to use helmets from certain sets with other body armors because they don’t match. Blah, blah, I know, it’s silly, but I like the idea of being able to mix and max armors from time to time. Now, I finally can, as parts from these new sets look like they’ll fit in nicely with much of the game’s existing armor. Helldivers fashionados unite!
Jumping ahead, we can now take a look at the capes. Personally, I don’t have many capes that work well with my preferred armor sets. Tan, especially, has been a hard color to coordinate with outside of the basic black cape. Both tan and green-colored capes are a welcome sight for citizens wanting to look their best in the field of battle, and I eagerly await seeing Automaton oil splashed upon their fabric.
Now, onto weapons. First up, there’s the Arc-12 Blitzer. An Arc Thrower shotgun? Are you kidding me? Hell(diver) yeah! Who doesn’t want to disperse freedom through arcs of electricity? I love the idea of a shotgun that has some decent area-of-effect (AoE) control.
Next, we’re shown the LAS-16 Sickle, an automatic energy rifle. While this isn’t entirely known yet, I imagine that some form of electricity is being applied to its damage output. The primary hint is that the weapon uses foil cosmetics around its body, though its magazines also have an electricity symbol on their side.
I haven’t used many automatics since maining the Breaker and JAR-5 Dominator, so something new in addition to the existing Liberator options will be a welcome addition to the arsenal.
The third weapon we’re shown — and the one I’m most curious about how practical it will be for players — is the SG-8P Punisher Plasma, which is a plasma grenade launcher version of the Punisher shotgun (recently buffed in Helldivers 2’s first balance patch) that detonates on impact. It’s shown blowing apart multiple smaller enemies, giving fans another option for AoE control. It would be nice to see this have staggering effects on larger enemies, too; perhaps it’ll be strong against enemy Berserkers and Devastators. Only time will tell.
A new grenade type, the G23 Stun, was shown as well. When it detonates, it’s capable of stopping a group of Devastators dead in their tracks. This looks like an easy, on-the-go EMS Mortar players can use for quick crowd control. Use armor that grants six grenades and jump into an Automaton battleground for optimal performance; maybe we’ll get to use these against our own Exosuit mechs if the Automatons wipe us out in the latest Major Order.
I’m eager to jump in on March 14, which is when the Cutting Edge battle pass is slated to become available. Note that the old Warbonds won’t disappear when it does, and you’ll still be able to unlock them at your leisure, so don’t worry about grinding them out before this new one arrives.
It’s not clear what Cutting Edge will cost, though as denoted in its description, it will require some Super Credits. These can be purchased for real-world money ($10 gets you 1,000, which is the amount needed for the Steeled Veterans Warbond, though this one may be less expensive), but you can also find them at points of interest (POIs) during missions or unlock them from the game’s base Warbond pass.
Speaking of grinding, I hope I have plenty of time to finish Cutting Edge before Dragon’s Dogma 2 comes out only a week later. What a Q124 we’re having! Was there anything in this trailer you saw that got you incredibly excited? Let us know in the comments or on our social media pages what you want to use first!
Helldivers 2 is available now for $39.99 on both PS5 and PC, and so far, it’s one of the best PC games of the year. Notably, the game also supports cross-platform play between PS5 and PC.
