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By Oliver Brandt

Contributing Pop Culture Writer

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Last night, during The Game Awards 2024, Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead both announced and released a huge update called Omens of Tyranny. The free update, version 01.002.001, is live now on both PS5 and PC, and brings with it a brand-new enemy faction, a speedy vehicle for players to zip around in, and heaps of bug fixes and quality of life changes.

The new faction is called the Illuminate, and they've been teased in-game a lot in recent months via a series of easter eggs. This shadowy faction has been roaming the galaxy and mass-converting citizens, but their intent is unknown — something for players to discover over the coming weeks and months. The Illuminate should offer a fascinating new twist for Helldivers 2 players.

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You can find the full patch notes for Helldivers 2 version 01.002.001 below.

Helldivers 2 update 01.002.001 patch notes

Additions

Illuminate

The Illuminate are back, and with them, a new wave of terror threatens our democracy. After nearly a century of relative peace, these technologically advanced enemies have returned.

The Illuminate are conducting mysterious invasions across the galaxy, seizing our colonies and converting our citizens. These staging attacks and Illuminate disappearances are too precise and elusive to suggest a full-scale planetary conquest, but their methods and intentions remain a dire enigma.

New colony missions

Omens of Tyranny is bringing the fight into the streets, with new mission areas inside Super Earth's many colonies.

But it won't be easy. Gone are the wide open spaces that Helldivers are accustomed to fighting in. Cities mean closer quarters, dark alleys, and forked paths where one wrong turn means meeting a horde of Voteless to liberate.

New FRV vehicle

With all these new developments, there won't be time to take driver's ed. courses, Helldiver. A Fast Recon Vehicle "FRV" will now appear in the colonies, ready to plow through the Illuminate at high speed.

Balance

General changes

Exploding Barrels

• The barrels have been upgraded with a more potent fuel mixture and now come with additional incendiary compounds to increase fuel efficiency. However, upon detonation they now leave a trail of fire behind, becoming more hazardous

Helldiver

• Thanks to Super Earth's latest military technical advancements, all Helldiver armor now comes with a fire-retardant coating. It now takes slightly longer for Helldivers to be set on fire

Primary Weapons

SG-225SP Breaker Spray & Pray

• Improved ergonomics from 25 to 50

Sidearms

SG-22 Bushwhacker

• Reload duration decreased from 3 to 2.5 sec

Throwables

G4 Gas Grenade

• Demolition strength increased from 10 to 30

G-10 Incendiary Grenade

• Increased the fire duration

Stratagem Support Weapons

RL-77 Airburst Rocket Launcher

• New weapon function: In addition to the existing 'Flak' projectiles, players can now switch to 'Cluster' munition projectiles. Cluster projectiles detonate based on a timer, not a proximity trigger. Both modes deploy the same number of bombs, with the following differences:
• Flak projectiles and bombs work the same as before
• Cluster munition bombs have a short arming time
• Cluster munition bombs do not have detonation timers

LAS-98 Laser Cannon

• Max spare magazines increased from 1 to 2
• Decreased heat buildup when firing by 20%

Boosters

Flexible Reinforcement Budget

• Increased the bonus gained by the Flexible Reinforcement Budget Booster by 150%

Expert Extraction Pilot

• Increased the bonus gained by the Expert Extraction Pilot Booster by 100%

Muscle Enhancement

• Increased the bonus gained by the Muscle Enhancement Booster by 40%

Motivational Shock

• Increased the bonus gained by the Motivational Shock Booster by 100%

Armor Passives

Peak Physique

• Increased the melee damage bonus gained by the Peak Physique armor passive by 100%

Backpacks

LIFT-850 Jump Pack

• Can now aim whilst airborne
• Can now stim whilst airborne
• CAUTION: The combination of flames and fast forward momentum in flight can have unexpectedly heated results. Aim responsibly!

Stratagems

All Sentries

• It takes longer for them to be set on fire, they burn for a shorter duration, but still take damage from direct flamethrower weapons fire.

EXO-49 Emancipator Exosuit and EXO-45 Patriot Exosuit

Both exosuits have been rebalanced to improve durability and extend combat effectiveness, while preserving a sense of vulnerability as they now gradually break down from sustained damage. The intention is to improve the experience with Exosuits by adding more gameplay depth

• Main health pool increased from 600 to 850
• Cockpit health pool increased from 450 to 500
• Cockpit armor increased from 2 to 3
• Arm health pool increased from 250 to 350
• Arm armor decreased from 3 to 2
• Leg health pool increased from 500 to 600
• Slightly less durable resistance against projectiles

Gameplay

Social

• You can now rejoin your last match after a crash

Automatons

Reinforced Scout Strider

• Reduced the number of Reinforced Scout Striders spawning on higher difficulty levels
• Increased the minimum range for Reinforced Scout Strider rocket launches
• The Reinforced Scout Strider will now stand in place before launching its rockets
• Added a brief delay before rockets are launched
• Improved rocket launch anticipation and readability with new thruster visual effects
• The rockets on the side of the Reinforced Scout Strider should now explode with more consistency when shot by players

Fixes

Resolved Top Priority issues:

• Resolved an issue where, under heavy server load, some players did not immediately receive their Super Credit purchases after payment
• Players are unable to shoot properly while in the air using a jetpack
• Fixed an issue where bug breaches would not spawn any bugs when carrying a larva backpack
• The Automaton Barrager Tank's turret no longer continues to work despite its body being destroyed
• Fixed an issue where the Hive Drill terminal was unable to be interacted with
• Reinforcement may not be available for players who join a game in progress

• The Reinforced Scout Strider does not telegraph its rocket attacks
• The spawn rate of Reinforced Scout Striders on higher difficulty levels has been reduced
• The minimum range for rocket launches by the Reinforced Scout Strider has been increased
• The Reinforced Scout Strider will now pause before initiating a rocket launch
• New thruster visual effects improve the anticipation and clarity of rocket launches
• The side rockets of the Reinforced Scout Strider now explode more reliably when hit by players

• Excessive ragdolling can cause a feeling of helplessness and frustration
• The Helldiver will now remain prone after ragdolling instead of automatically standing up.
• Fire status effects also now wear off faster when ragdolling
• This will provide better protection and survivability in the prone position by reducing vulnerability to ranged attacks, explosions, fire and additional ragdoll effects. It will also give players control of their avatar sooner, allowing them to decide whether to stand, run, crawl, use a stim, or take other actions without waiting for the avatar to stand automatically.
• We are continuing to monitor ragdolling issues and exploring potential adjustments. We welcome your feedback on these changes and their impact on gameplay!

Crash Fixes and Soft-locks:

• General crash fixes
• Fixed a crash that could occur when returning to ship while a lot of explosions were going off
• Fixed a crash that occurred when a player hot-joined at the end of an ongoing mission, stayed in the loadout screen until the mission was completed, booted from the menu and then transferred to the host's ship. If the player then selected new stratagems and deployed them after landing on a new mission, the game would crash
• Fixed a rare crash that could occur shortly after joining a new game
• Fixed a crash that could occur during drop-in after hot-joining a game in progress
• Fixed a crash for clients when joining as a party that occurred at the loadout menu

Social Issues

• Resolved an issue where players could attempt to join AFK friends that were incorrectly displayed as "in-ship" when they were on the splash screen, causing errors like "Unable to join the lobby, timeout"
• Fixed an issue that was leading to the social menu and lobby system to not work properly after long periods of being AFK
• Fixed an issue that prevented the social menu from displaying your friends' updated nicknames
• Fixed an issue where Helldivers 2 friend code features were missing when crossplay was disabled
• Resolved an issue where users with a large number of in-game friends couldn't see some of their friends' in-game status properly, preventing them from being able to invite or join their friends
• Removed the ability for players to use hex codes in usernames, which was exploited to impersonate developers and crash other players' clients

Weapons and Stratagems

• Exosuits now instantly ejects Helldivers when they've been fully submerged in water
• Binding Stratagem inputs to other buttons no longer causes terminal interactions to be canceled
• Fixed an issue with Tesla tower attacks knocking down Helldivers using the Electrical Conduit armor passive
• Helldivers will no longer take fall damage when the LIFT-850 Jump Pack engages its landing thrusters
• Fixed an issue where Helldivers mounting the E/MG-101 HMG Emplacement would instantly die when the E/MG-101 HMG Emplacement was destroyed
• Fixed an issue where Helldivers were able to shoot from their currently equipped weapon during the assisted reload

Missions

• Fixed an issue where the Stronghold map icon was hidden when Atmospheric Spores or Ion Storms were active during missions
• Enemies
• Fixed an issue where enemies wouldn't detach from the Fabricator on Automaton missions
• Fixed enemies sometimes bouncing up and down
• Miscellaneous Fixes
• Fixed an issue where players were able to move while emoting victory poses
• Text-to-speech will now stop immediately when the setting is disabled
• Improved Automaton dropship crash animations
• Emote input type no longer ignores players settings (hold, tap etc)
• The HUD now displays the danger vignette when taking environmental damage
• Solved an issue where the Hellpods created incorrect shadows on the planet during the drop-in sequence
• Reports have surfaced of some Helldivers sneaking extra stims into their resupply bags—those caught have been tried and sent for re-education
• This fixes an issue with incorrect amount of stims being granted in resupplies
• Stims are no longer interrupted after the healing audio is triggered
• The Democracy Space Station Menu now displays the contribution amounts accurately
• The minimum currency donation for the Democracy Space Station Tactical Actions has been reduced. The "Insufficient Funds" popup will now only appear if you attempt to donate with a currency balance of 0
• The Abandon Mission With Squad option is now hidden when playing alone
• The session invite sound will no longer play when receiving an invite from a blocked player
• Fixed a rendering issue on bright surfaces where they would sometimes flicker when HDR was enabled
• Fixed an issue where dispatches font size was too small
• Minor improvements to the HUD when entering/exiting Exosuits
• Minor improvements to heat-based weapons UI
• Resolved an issue that caused a softlock when attempting to exit the PSN link screen while in the loadout selection menu

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