Helldivers 2 update 01.000.200 official patch notes: balance changes, bug fixes, new Planetary Hazards, and more

The latest Helldivers 2 update is now live on all platforms. It is packed with a host of balance changes, minor bug fixes, and some new surprises for fans. The update 01.000.200 introduces balance changes aimed primarily at missions, Stratagems, and certain weapons, that either were made somewhat ineffective in later missions or were a bit too overpowered.

Apart from the host of balance-related updates, there are some new gameplay elements added to the game, in particular, new Planetary Hazards. Blizzards and sandstorms are the new hazards that Helldivers will now have to contend with alongside the horde of Automaton and Terminid adversities.

The latest update also brings minor bug fixes and stability improvements across all platforms.

Here's a look at the official patch notes for Helldivers 2 update 01.000.200.

Helldivers 2 update 01.000.200 official patch notes

Since its release on February 8, 2024, Helldivers 2 has received plenty of title updates and hotfixes. While most of them aimed to fix the numerous technical issues plaguing the launch version of the co-op third-person shooter, the later batch of updates did come with new content add-ons, such as new missions, and the Planetary Hazard system.

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The latest Helldivers 2 update, version 01.000.200, although, does not introduce anything new per se, it does bring some well-needed changes that make the game much more enjoyable for veterans and newcomers alike.

Here are the official patch notes for Helldivers 2 version 01.000.200:

Gameplay (Helldivers 2 01.000.200)

Planetary Hazard additions

Blizzards
Sandstorms

Balancing (Helldivers 2 01.000.200)

Missions

Retrieve Essential Personnel

Moved the enemy spawn points further away from the objective to give players a fairer chance of defending the location.
There are fewer civilians required to complete the mission on higher difficulties.

Destroy Command Bunkers

Now has more objective locations, and the mission was too easy before compared to other missions.
It can now appear in operations from difficulty 5.
Halved the negative effect of operation modifiers that increase stratagem cooldowns or call in times.

Primary, Secondary, & Support Weapons

Arc Thrower: fixed charging inconsistencies; it will now always take 1s to charge a shot.
Arc Thrower: reduced distance from 50m to 35m.
Arc Thrower: increased stagger force.
Guard Dog: now restores full ammo from supply boxes.
Anti-Materiel Rifle: damage increased by 30%.
Breaker Incendiary: damage per bullet increased from 15 per bullet to 20 per bullet.
Fire damage per tick increased by 50% (from all sources).
Liberator Penetrator: now has a full auto mode.
Dominator: increased damage from 200 to 300.
Dominator: increased stagger.
Diligence Counter Sniper: increased armor penetration from light to medium.
Slugger: reduced stagger.
Slugger: reduced damage from 280 to 250.
Slugger: reduced demolition force.
Slugger: fixed armor penetration tag in the menu.
Slugger, Liberator Concussive, Senator: fixed incorrect armor penetration tags in the menu.
Recoilless Rifle: increased the number of rockets you restore from supply boxes from 2 to 3.
Spear: increased the number of missiles you restore from supply boxes from 1 to 2.
Heavy Machine Gun: the highest fire rate mode reduced from 1200 rpm to a more moderate 950.

Stratagems

Patriot Exosuit: rockets will now penetrate armor only on a direct hit.

Enemies

Balancing adjustments have been made to:

Charger's normal melee attack now does less damage against Exosuits.
Bile Spewers and Nursing Spewers do less damage with their puke.
The Bile Titan can no longer be stunned.
Shriekers no longer create bug breaches.
Shriekers hitting you while they are dead now does significantly less damage.

Helldiver

Balancing adjustments have been made to:

Heavy and medium armor protects better and you now take about 10% less damage than before while wearing heavy and about 5% less when wearing medium armor. Fortified commando and light armor are unchanged.

Fixes (Helldivers 2 01.000.200)

Fixed issue where save settings for PS5 would be reset when the game is rebooted, causing things such as loadout and hint settings to reset.
Enemies now properly target Exosuits. Previously, many enemies effectively ignored Exosuits if a helldiver on foot was available for them to target.
Fixed Exosuits being able to fire their weapons while opening the minimap.
The Helldiver and the Exosuit both had a bug that made them sometimes take explosion damage multiple times making things like automaton rockets too deadly, this is now fixed.
Automaton enemy constellations that preferred to spawn more of certain Devastators types did not work and are now functioning as they should. This means that sometimes when playing against the Automatons you will face more Devastators instead of other enemy types.

We have improved the system that prevents Hellpod steering close to large or important objects.

We have solved issues where the effective area around objects was a lot larger than intended.
We have reduced the number of objects that prevent hellpod steering.
Note: This system is intended to prevent softlocks where players can drop on important interaction points, or drop into unintended places. We will continue to monitor the state of the system after the update to see if additional tweaks are necessary.
Fixed cases where the ground under some assets could be bombed causing them to float.

Ballistic Shield changes

Collision mesh has been slightly increased in size for more forgiveness
Changed shield poses so that less of the Helldiver is exposed
Addressed bug where parts of the Helldiver would become vulnerable while using the shield in first person

Known Issues (Helldivers 2 01.000.200)

These are issues that were either introduced by this patch and are being worked on, or are from a previous version and have not yet been fixed.

The game might crash when picking up a snowball or throwing back a grenade

Various issues involving friend invites and cross-play

Cross-platform friend invites might not show up in the Friend Requests tab.
Players cannot unfriend other players befriended via friend code.
Players cannot unblock players that were not in their Friends list beforehand.
Players cannot befriend players with Steam names shorter than 3 characters
Explosive weapon stats include only direct hit damage but not explosive damage.
Explosions do not break your limbs (except for when you fly into a rock).
Planet liberation reaches 100% at the end of every Defend mission.
Drowning in deep water with a Vitality Booster equipped puts Helldiver in a broken state.
Stratagem beam might attach itself to an enemy but it will deploy to its original location.
Some player customizations (like title or body type) may reset after restarting the game.

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There are also reports of the latest Helldivers 2 update silently raising the base level cap for Helldivers, and also adding new titles for players to unlock. However, developer Arrowhead Game Studios has yet to confirm this officially.