For some, it's safe to say the Helldivers 2 honeymoon is over. Yesterday Arrowhead released its first balance patch, which finally made orbital strikes more consistent and the Flamethrower a legitimate powerhouse. It also nerfed the most popular equipment in the game, the Railgun and shield backpack. Guess how that went down with players who've been rocking the overpowered loadout for a month?
The nerfs sparked backlash from the vocal Helldivers subreddit and Discord server, who argued that, without the killer combo, Helldivers 2's highest difficulty levels are now unmanageable. Things got heated when an Arrowhead dev pushed back about the nerfs "ruining" the game, and a Discord mod also got trolly in a long series of responses. CEO Johan Pilestedt later apologized on behalf of the studio, saying "this is not a message that the studio stands behind."
