Helldivers 2 second patch finally fixes spawn rates but leaves Charger leg strength alone

Today, Arrowhead Game Studios announced the second minor update for Helldivers 2, Patch 1.000.102. The game has been in a great place since its first patch, with players quickly storming any battlefields assaulted by Terminids or Automatons. This patch doesn’t impact the game anywhere near as much as the last, but there are still a few noteworthy points — particularly regarding Chargers.

Helldivers 2 Patch 1.000.102 notes, explained

Below, we’ve broken down the Helldivers 2 Patch 1.000.102 in terms that make more sense to us as players. Some of the details won’t matter to everyone, but there are large, sweeping adjustments, such as the spawn rates of certain armored bugs, that you’ll all want to know have been addressed.

Balance changes in Helldivers 2

At long last, you shouldn’t see too many armored Terminids spawning on planets. This means those hordes of Bile Titans are now a thing of the past, and there should be a good mix of enemies on every difficulty level. Arrowhead Game Studios is keen to point out that difficulty hasn’t been changed, just spawn rates, so expect many, many smaller bugs instead of just fewer massive ones.

The Charger leg meta that’s quickly become the best way to kill these annoying enemies is still the best way to kill them. This patch reduces Charger head armor, but you’re still going to get results by shooting their legs. Whether it’s now that much faster to shoot legs, however, remains to be seen.

I’d expect to see Terminid swarms on higher difficulties become obscenely large. Although they’ll be packed with a lot more tiny bugs and dotted with a few Chargers and Bile Titans. This feels much more reminiscent of Starship Troopers and a lot more like what the developer was going for when designing the game. Let’s hope it doesn’t adjust Automaton spawn rates, though.

Helldivers 2 gameplay changes

The only gameplay change is to the Electronic Countermeasures operation modifier. This is meant to give you a chance to have a random Stratagem trigger instead of the one you called. However, after reading feedback or seeing the operation modifier in action, the developer has taken it offline to rework it and introduce it again in the future. the main issue appears to be that it doesn’t clearly state what impact it’ll have on the mission, leading to confusion over in-game bugs.

Minor fixes in Helldivers 2 Patch .102

Missing UI text, subtitle mismatches, and various crashes that could occur have been identified and fixed. There’s a selection of known issues that the developer is working on fixes for but are not fixed too. Overall, the experience of playing Helldivers 2 should be slightly smoother, but not quite perfect.

Be sure to read the full patch notes on Steam to see exactly what the developer is saying about Helldivers 2. There are nods to the community and potential hints and future changes, but we don’t want to muddy the water with speculation here.