Helldivers 2 – Escalation of Freedom’s solution to stop grief-kicking is creating new concerns

Helldivers 2‘s massive August update, Escalation of Freedom, is set to end players griefing others by kicking them from sessions once and for all. That’s the good news. But the way it works may create new problems.

Here’s the gist: On August 6, 2024, Helldivers 2 players will be introduced to Escalation of Freedom, the game’s biggest content drop yet. It brings additional enemies, new objectives, a level 10 difficulty option, and more. The PlayStation Blog post goes over the delicious-looking update in brief, ending with the proverbial “cherry on top.” Arrowhead Games will put a stop to grief kicking with a change that benefits the kickee.

To help improve this we have implemented a system where if a player is kicked, they will spawn into a new session as the host with all of the team’s loot from their previous session. All items can now be picked up by the player before extraction. The squad doing the kicking will see a message in the chat widget that a player has been kicked, yet their loot remains unchanged.

Arrowhead Games

It seems all well and good. But what’s to stop people from exploiting this new method?

Helldivers 2 grief-kicking solution brings duping concerns

As some in the Helldivers 2 community have brought up, the win-win solution can potentially introduce an issue common to live-service games: Item duping.

Kicking a player forces them into a new game with them as the host, with all the former team’s loot in tow. What’s to stop a group of friends from loading up Samples on a Difficulty 9 mission and kicking their buddy who now has a copy of their loot? If the prior team successfully extracts, can they join their kicked friend for double the reward?

The system may also benefit your garden-variety griefer. Someone could join a high-rank game and gun down their teammates after extraction gets called. In a normal scenario, the host would rightfully kick the asshole from the game.

Grief-kicking regular players for no clear reason was and is still (for now) an issue. But the kick function exists to prevent jerks from having their way. The solution as it’s presented removes the consequences of shitty behavior, potentially allowing abusers to shoot their cake and eat it too. Now, imagine that kicked player inviting their friends over for a free slice.

The post on the PlayStation Blog doesn’t mention any protections in place to prevent exploitation. Granted, a lengthier explanation of how it works may come from Arrowhead Games soon. There could very well be a system in place to prevent abuse, but we won’t know until the team provides a closer look.