Helldivers 2’s worst weapon just got a serious glow-up

Ah, the Helldivers 2 Adjudicator weapon. A not-quite DMR, not-quite Assault Rifle, sent out to languish among other, actually useful guns by its creator, Arrowhead Game Studios.

Well, one big ol’ balance patch later, and this is my new go-to primary rifle.

Why are people flocking to the Adjudicator in Helldivers 2?

From yesterday’s patch:

• BR-14 Adjudicator
  • Full auto is now the default fire mode
  • Reduced recoil
  • Increased maximum mags from 6 to 9

The patch notes are minor-looking. Quaint, even. But don’t be fooled, dear reader, these are meaningful changes. Enough to transform this once joke of a weapon into the bane of any enemy smaller than a mid-sized SUV. The real kicker here is the reduction of recoil. Before, the weapon was much too weak to be used as a single-fire DMR, and kicked much too hard to have any real efficacy as an auto rifle. But now that it’s been remolded into a true auto rifle, it has excellent precision thanks to a lack of recoil.

Emptying a mag from the Adjudicator is enough to kill just about any medium-armored enemy. These are your Hive Guards, Bile Spewers, those sorts of things. What’s more, a single shot is enough to kill any small, “popcorn” style enemies (up to and including Hunters). So you can quickly alternate between picking off riff-raff with precision and unloading into beefier foes.

The magazine increase helps justify spraying lead into the soft underbellies of enemies that take more than a few shots to kill, too. Especially since you get back a whopping 4 magazines from a single ammo drop. I never found myself wanting ammo, even as I was leaning a bit too much on the medium-armor penetration capabilities of the weapon.

All that said, your mileage may vary. As with any weapon, it’s gotta pass the vibe check – sometimes I find myself enjoying “off-meta” weapons far more than others simply because they have style points (looking at you, Senator revolver). Still, even if the Adjudicator isn’t the absolute best primary, it’s nice to see it comfortably settle into “usable” territory just a few weeks after release.

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