The worst has come to pass in Helldivers 2 in the new Galactic Emergency update, my fellow democracy defenders. After months of hard fighting to stop the Illuminate’s planet-destroying Meridian Wormhole and a Discord-based ARG that saw players bring a satellite station online, they were confronted with the unthinkable on its live feed: the sight of countless Illuminate ships surging through the Singularity, immediately placing Super Earth and several of her inner colonies under threat.
As per the latest Major Order, all Helldivers are immediately ordered to contest the advance of the invasion fleet by defending the planets Widow’s Harbor, Pilen V, and New Haven for as long as they possibly can. Tragically, though, it’s a hold that’s doomed to fail; Super Earth High Command warns that “all 3 planets will fall” based on defense projections, and that all we can do is bleed as much of the fleet’s strength as possible in this fighting retreat.
Worse still is the fact that “battle on Super Earth is inevitable,” confirming that the heart of Managed Democracy itself will come under attack for the first time since the Second Galactic War began. “The Helldivers must inflict as much damage to the enemy fleet as possible while Mega City defenses are bolstered,” reads the latest dispatch.
Players can also expect to encounter three new Illuminate enemy types in the field: the Stingray, a close air support fighter that will strafe Helldivers in a manner similar to Eagle-1 call-ins; Crescent Overseers, which trade the Overseers’ usual blaster staves for handheld artillery guns that can flush you out of cover; and Fleshmobs, which are hulking, abominable amalgamations of Voteless flesh that require sustained and coordinated fire to bring down effectively.
Even in this “State of Extratyrannical Emergency,” though, we’re not left without advantages of our own in the fight. As part of the Galactic Emergency patch, full weapon customization has been added, bringing Helldivers 2’s progression more in-line with the original 2015 game. The way it works is simple: as you use the weapons in your arsenal, you’ll gain XP for them and level them up. As you do, you’ll gradually unlock new attachments for them you can purchase with Requisition Slips, including sights, magazines, barrel attachments, underbarrel attachments, and more — all of which will tweak weapon performance. Camo skins are included in this system, too, enabling visual personalization that wasn’t possible before.
Coming alongside weapon customization is a huge list of buffs for many of Helldivers 2’s guns, including underperforming options like the R-36 Eruptor and the SMG-32 Reprimand. The overall goal of all the changes seems to have been to reduce bullet spread and improve accuracy, with other adjustments made where they were needed. The only “nerf” is a change to the Ultimatum grenade launcher that reduces the destructive power of its projectile’s impact, but greatly improves the lethality of its area-of-effect explosion; it will be far better at killing large groups of enemies now, but can no longer destroy certain side objectives like Automaton Stratagem Jammers (it was nice while it lasted).
It’s also worth noting that developer Arrowhead Game Studios has made the decision to get rid of the rotating offerings in Helldivers 2’s Superstore where players can spend their earned — or purchased — Super Credits. All previously released customization items can now be bought at any time, if you’re after items that you missed, you no longer have to wait for them to roll around again. Some armor sets in the Superstore give you access to passives that you’d have to buy a full Warbond to get access to otherwise, so this quality-of-life decision actually has noteworthy gameplay benefits.
I haven’t been able to jump in and dive on Widow’s Harbor myself yet, but all in all, Galactic Emergency seems like a phenomenal update for Helldivers 2 that meaningfully expands the Illuminate gameplay experience, gives players a huge amount of fun weapon customizations to play with (and a much-needed Requisition Slip sink), and makes those weapons more enjoyable to use. The only disappointment is the new Masters of Ceremony Warbond coming out on May 15, as it looks extremely underwhelming.
Helldivers 2 Galactic Emergency update: Patch notes
Here are the full patch notes for the Galactic Emergency update, taken directly from the official Helldivers 2 news page on Steam.
Overview
- New Illuminate faction enemies
- New Weapon Customizations and Progression
- Crash fixes
- Weapon fixes
- Miscellaneous fixes
Major Update
Weapon Customization
Gear up, Helldivers—your arsenal just got personal!
With the new Weapon Customization system, you can now tailor your favorite weapons to match your combat style and preferences once you’ve progressed and unlocked different attachments. Whether it’s tweaking sights for precision, changing color patterns, adjusting magazines for ammo capacity, muzzles to optimize weapon performance characteristics or adjusting underbarrels for the handling you want, you’re in command of how your weaponry performs on the battlefield.Tinker in the menu, customize your specific weapon configs and switch between them during the mission loadout sequence.
It’s time to fight for Super Earth with weapons that are truly yours!
We are aware of a bug that prevents players from canceling customization with a controller. We have a fix identified and prepared for our next hotfix. In the meantime, you can save the customization and then go in and do it again.
New Illuminate Enemies
Stingray: Jetfighters that provide Illuminate support from the sky, targeting Helldivers and lining up devastating strafing runs.
Crescent Overseer: Has the ability to lay barrages on Helldivers in cover.
Fleshmob: A failed Illuminate experiment made up of Voteless parts turned into a brute battlefield force that the Helldivers must work hard to destroy.
Balancing
- Weapon balances:
- Spread
- Drag
- Sway
- Melee weapons stamina cost
- Shrapnel spawning
- Fire damage
Spread: Spread refers to how much a projectile veers from the point you’re aiming at when you fire. This rebalance primarily targets SMGs and sidearms, which previously had noticeably higher spread values. We’ve reviewed all primary, sidearm, and support weapons with the intent to significantly reduce spread overall, as it didn’t make much sense for these specific weapons to have such high inaccuracy.
Drag: Drag determines how quickly a projectile loses speed over distance, affecting its damage. We’ve increased drag for pistol-caliber ammunition (used in SMGs and some sidearms) to better represent its shorter, wider projectile compared to rifle rounds. As a result, these weapons will be slightly less effective at longer ranges.
Sway: Sway refers to how much the weapon’s aim shifts, influenced by factors like movement and stance. It represents the weapon’s inertia and stability—so weapons with lower ergonomics will experience less sway, while those with higher ergonomics will have more. Sidearms will naturally have more sway than primaries due to the lack of support features like stocks. This balance patch specifically focuses on adjusting sway for primaries and sidearms.
Stamina Cost: All melee weapons now consume less stamina when attacking, reducing the cost from 0.1 to 0.05. This change makes melee combat less punishing and allows for easier repositioning between strikes. The affected weapons include the CQC-30 Stun Baton, CQC-19 Stun Lance, CQC-5 Combat Hatchet, and the Entrenchment Tool.
Shrapnel spawning: With this update, shrapnel will now always spawn in a full 360-degree spread, regardless of where the explosion occurs. This means weapons like the R-36 Eruptor will now more reliably hit the intended target with their shrapnel.In addition, we’ve adjusted shrapnel performance against armor. Shrapnel now has reduced effectiveness at poor impact angles, to reflect its lack of design for armor penetration in such situations.
- These shrapnel balance changes will impact the following weapons:
- R-36 Eruptor
- G-6 Frag Grenade
- AC-8 Autocannon
Balance Changes
- Armor Penetration decreased on shrapnel projectiles from 3-3-3-0 to 3-3-2-0
- Each of these numbers represent an angle threshold, which means we’ve reduced the AP value of 3 to 2 in the last range where a shrapnel projectile would penetrate an enemy.
- Frag Grenade
- Increased Shrapnel spawned from 30 to 35
- Autocannon Flak
- Increased Shrapnel spawned from 25 to 30
Fire and Flamethrowers: This update aims to better balance fire damage between direct hits (like those from flamethrowers) and burn effects over time, while also introducing scaling of fire damage depending on the size of the enemy. Previously, burn damage didn’t scale well against larger enemies, making putting them on fire feel less effective in those encounters.
Now, the larger the enemy, the more damage they take while burning. However, bigger enemies will also be slightly more resistant to ignition. Additionally, direct fire damage now scales with enemy size—so large enemies like Chargers will still take roughly the same damage as before, while smaller enemies will take slightly less.
We have also increased the magazine capacity of the FLAM-66 Torcher and the FLAM-40 Flamethrower because putting stuff on fire is fun!
- Damage:
- Burning damage now scales with enemy size and will do more damage over time to larger enemies
- Fire direct damage also scales with enemy size. The base damage of direct fire hits has been lowered as compensation. This means that large enemies will take roughly the same amount of damage as before, while smaller enemies will take slightly less
- Time to ignite:
- Larger enemies now take longer to ignite
- Robotic enemies are harder to set on fire than organic ones
- Incendiary Ammunition and Lasers are now less effective at igniting enemies, but once they do, the resulting burn damage is more impactful thanks to the new scaling system
- The Helldiver:
- The Helldiver is now slightly more resistant to being set on fire
- Burn damage taken by the Helldiver remains unchanged
Primary Weapons
- AR-23 Liberator
- Spread decreased from 4 to 2
- AR-23P Liberator Penetrator
- Starting magazines increased from 5 to 6
- Max spare magazines increased from 7 to 8
- AR-23C Liberator Concussive
- Spread decreased from 24 to 4
- StA-52 Assault Rifle
- Spread decreased from 4 to 2
- AR-23A Liberator Carbine
- Spread decreased from 4 to 3
- AR-61 Tenderizer
- Spread decreased from 4 to 1
- SMG-37 Defender
- Spread decreased from 20 to 5
- Drag increased from 0.3 to 0.6
- Sway increased from 1 to 1.2
- SMG-72 Pummeler
- Spread decreased from 20 to 5
- Drag increased from 0.3 to 0.6
- Sway increased from 1 to 1.2
- MP-98 Knight
- Spread decreased from 25 to 5
- Drag increased from 0.3 to 0.6
- Sway increased from 1 to 1.2
- StA-11 SMG
- Spread decreased from 25 to 5
- Drag increased from 0.3 to 0.6
- Sway increased from 1 to 1.2
- SMG-32 Reprimand
- Spread decreased from 40 to 5
- Drag increased from 0.3 to 0.6
- JAR-5 Dominator
- Sway decreased from 1 to 0.8
- R-63CS Diligence Counter Sniper
- Sway decreased from 1 to 0.8
- FLAM-66 Torcher
- Magazine capacity increased by 25%
- R-36 Eruptor
- Spread decreased from 10 to 5
- Ergonomics increased from -14 to 25
- Sway decreased from 1 to 0.8
- Fire rate increased from 25 to 32
- Fixed a bug that allowed players to cancel the Eruptor’s round cycling animation, effectively increasing its fire rate
- The intent with these changes:
- The improvements made to the Eruptor are designed to compensate for the removal of the reload exploit, ensuring that its overall power remains steady or even improved
- PLAS-39 Accelerator Rifle
- Drag decreased from 1.5 → 0.1
- Is now categorized as an energy weapon in the loadout menu
- The changes to drag means it wont lose speed and damage as it travels through the air and does the damage you would expect it to do
Sidearm Weapons
- GP-31 Ultimatum
- Is now affected by the Hellpod Optimization Booster
- Explosion damage increased from 1000 to 2000
- Explosion inner radius decreased from 4 to 2 m
- Projectile damage decreased from 3500 to 1000
- Demolition strength decreased from 50 to 40
- Sway increased from 1 to 1.3
- The intent with these changes:
- We want to maintain the Ultimatum’s overall power level while rebalancing how that power is delivered—shifting more of the damage from the projectile itself to the explosion. Previously, the Ultimatum behaved more like a massive kinetic projectile (similar to the 380mm shell) because of its high projectile damage and relatively weaker explosion. This update reinforces its intended identity as a powerful explosive weapon, emphasizing high explosive damage over impact force
- Most heavy enemies will now die from a close hit instead of a direct hit, except for the Factory Strider
- Additionally, due to its reduced demolition strength, the Ultimatum will no longer destroy Stratagem Jammer Objectives or landed Illuminate Warp Ships through their shields. However, the dropships now have health, allowing the Ultimatum to destroy them once the shield is down
- P-2 Peacemaker
- Decreased Spread from 30 to 10
- Sway increased from 1 to 1.2
- P-19 Redeemer
- Decreased Spread from 35 to 10
- Sway increased from 1 to 1.2
- P-113 Verdict
- Decreased Spread from 30 to 8
- Sway increased from 1 to 1.2
- PLAS-15 Loyalist
- Decreased Spread from 25 to 10
- Sway increased from 1 to 1.2
- LAS-58 Talon
- Sway increased from 1 to 1.2
- P-72 Crisper
- Sway increased from 1 to 1.2
- GP-31 Grenade Pistol
- Sway increased from 1 to 1.2
- LAS-7 Dagger
- Sway increased from 1 to 1.2
- P-11 Stim Pistol
- Sway increased from 1 to 1.2
- SG-22 Bushwhacker
- Sway increased from 1 to 1.3
- P-4 Senator
- Decreased Spread from 30 to 8
- Sway increased from 1 to 1.3
Stratagems
- RS-422 Railgun
- Decreased Spread from 10 to 0.1
- FLAM-40 Flamethrower
- Magazine capacity increased by 30%
- Backpacks
- LIFT-850 Jump pack
- Increased break force on landing to make Helldivers less likely to ragdoll when landing
- Eagles
- Eagle 110mm rockets
- Stagger strength increased from 35 to 40
- Increased armor penetration in certain angles
Enemies
- Automatons
- Bunker Turret
- Spread increased from 20 to 50
- Conflagration Devastator
- Reduced damage per pellet
- More pellets are now required to hit you to put you on fire
- Automaton Gunship
- Body armor value reduced from 4 to 3
- Main body health increased to 950 from 700
- Now shoots more and the aim is slightly more accurate
- Bulk Fabricator
- Health increased from 1500 to 5000
- Conscripts
- There was a bug where the Conscripts reloaded after every shot, it’s now been fixed so they only reload when they’re actually out of ammo
- Terminids
- Spore Spewers
- Demolition level decreased from 60 to 50, making it easier to kill with heavy ordnance weapons
- Illuminates
- Landed Warp Ships
- Will now be easier to kill with Anti-Tank weaponry once the shields are down
Fixes
- Crash Fixes, Hangs and Soft-locks:
- Fixed a crash which could occur when returning to your Super Destroyer from a host parked at a planet with the Democracy Space Station in orbit, if the Democracy Space Station had just moved to a new planet
- Fixed a crash when writing a specific sequence of text in the chat
- Fixed a crash that could occur after partially destroying an Automaton convoy
- Fixed crash when attempting to drop into a mission on Tien Kwan
- Weapons and Stratagems
- The SMG-37 Defender does not trigger the anti tank mines anymore
- Improved the effectiveness of flashlight attachments
- Fixed a bug that was causing the camera to be stuck in Aim Down Sights (ADS) mode when discarding the MLS-4X Commando when utilizing that camera mode
- Cancelling laser weapon reloads no longer gives them infinite ammo
- Miscellaneous Fixes
- Fixed an issue with intermittent flickering of distant visual effects
- Fixed an issue where the FRV and Helldivers embarked in it would get covered in blood after a Helldiver would attack the FRV from any passenger seat
- Spore Scavengers can now properly attack
- Vehicles now correctly show the appropriate enemy blood colors
- Lowered the target node for the Illuminate tesla tower so that the StA-X3 W.A.S.P. Launcher can properly hit it
- No longer shows the reconnect popup if the host leaves while on the Destroyer
- Fixed an issue that resulted in some cases where the momentum could get reset at the end of moving emotes
- Sample containers can now be properly pinged again
- Corrected misaligned logo of the Borderline Justice Warbond
- Fixed an issue with the illuminate Cognitive Disruptor not turning off correctly for hot joining players
- Decreased a big hitch that could occur during the dropdown sequence
- The game is now showing the correct amount of total samples on missions
- Fixed a bug that caused held stratagems to be stuck in Helldivers hands after taking fall damage
- Performance improvement in the particle subsystem
Helldivers 2 stands tall as one of the best PC games and best PS5 games to play if you’re into co-op shooters, intense sci-fi action, goofy physics antics, and goofy satirical writing. It’s typically $40, though you can often get it for less if you shop around for discounts. Right now, the best one is CDKeys’ sale that shaves over $5 off the price, allowing you to get the bombastic title for under $35.
