Arrowhead Game Studios has officially released the highly anticipated major update for Helldivers 2. The new story arc begins with the Automaton Collective’s theft of Super Earth’s “Star of Peace” project schematics, calling players to march toward the gates of Cyberstan.
This update isn’t just about new content—it brings fundamental changes to the game’s melee combat dynamics and difficulty levels. Here are the standout details of this massive update.
The New Ruler of the Battlefield: Bastion Tank
With the message from High Command, the Bastion Tank, developed to counter the Automaton threat, has been officially deployed. Marketed as a “defensive tool of peace,” this massive armored vehicle is designed to crush entrenched enemies. While the Bastion Tank offers unmatched firepower and defensive capabilities, effective use requires the squad to work in perfect coordination.
New Warbond: Siegebreakers
The update also introduces the new Premium Warbond called Siegebreakers. You can find detailed information about the Warbond in our article here.
Gameplay and Balancing Changes
The development team has particularly focused on melee combat mechanics in this patch. The main goal of these changes is to reduce the necessity of armor passives while highlighting the inherent strength of weapons.
- Melee Combat Revision: All melee weapon damage has been increased. In return, the bonuses provided by armor passives that boost melee damage (like Peak Physique) have been reduced. This makes armor selection less mandatory while preserving or even increasing total damage potential in some combinations. Base melee attacks have also been strengthened by 50%.
- Weapon Controls: The “Sway” rate on SMGs and pistols has been reduced, allowing these weapons to achieve aiming stability similar to other weapon classes.
- Key Bindings: Weapon function modes (firing mode, flashlight, etc.) are now more consistent. Programmable ammunition, firing type, and safe mode options have been unified under the “Left” directional input.
Difficulty Level and AI Updates
In missions at difficulty level 9 and above, intensity has been increased, especially on the Automaton front. With improvements to enemy AI, bots will now track targets much more accurately even in crowded battles. Additionally, “Durable” damage types have been rebalanced to be more effective against Helldiver vehicles.
- SH-20 Ballistic Shield Backpack: Cooldown reduced from 300 to 240 seconds
- Orbital Smoke Strike: Cooldown reduced from 100 to 75 seconds
- G-7 Pineapple and G-31 Arc grenade carrying capacity increased
- Automaton units now target more accurately in crowded situations
- Rocket enemies are more lethal against vehicles and Exosuits
- Illuminate Overseer attacks create greater stagger effects
- Terminid “Dragon Roach” flame attack direct damage reduced
Additionally, Commando Operations can now be conducted on all Automaton-controlled planets. These missions will frequently be available alongside regular peacekeeping operations.
Technical Improvements and Bug Fixes
A new “Hang Detection” system has been integrated to address the freezing issues PC players frequently encounter. If the game becomes unresponsive for more than 20 seconds, the system will automatically generate a crash dump to help identify the source of the problem.
Additionally:
- Victory Poses and Emotes can now be used interchangeably, with some exceptions.
- Chinese voice-over option has been added to the game. Wish Turkish was added too.
- Performance optimizations made for fog density and explosion effects.
Helldivers 2’s 6.0.0 update is now available as approximately a 5GB update for Steam, PlayStation, and Xbox.