Helldivers 2 is getting a new “Chemical Agent” Stratagem next week, but you’ll literally have to pay or grind for it.

  • @PenguinMage
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    502 months ago

    … so it’s exactly the same as every warbond?

    Had me worried it would be exclusively $$. This is just a garbage article about something that’s been that way since the beginning.

    • BrikoXOP
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      -162 months ago

      If the goal is bringing back players, it’s definitely not the approach I would have taken. If the goal is to just continue milking the existing user base, then it will have no effect.

      • @PenguinMage
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        172 months ago

        Bringing folks back is them making weapons suck less again. I am definitely going to log back in on the 17th to try all the weapon buffs, see if any of the ones I had high hopes for are fun now that they can actually kill things. If it’s fun again I’ll grind out some super credits and get the warbond just like always. If it’s not fun enough I’ll go back to other games. Same as always.

        • JustEnoughDucks
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          2 months ago

          I don’t fully agree with people’s idea of what the weapons should be to make it fun. Though I completely agree that your interest in the game is probably how a ton of people are with it now.

          Helldivers is a more niche game than it was at first glance. The gameplay loop isn’t for everyone and specifically the gameplay loop is 10x better with 4 known friends in comms playing together.

          I think the nerfs to weapons (flamethrower didn’t actually get nerfed, they just make flames actually work correctly and not penetrate literally everything so you can run around being master chief 1 man god army) actually made the game more like the intention: mid completion rate, success by the skin of your teeth, extraction extremely optional because the divers are just a part of the military industrial meat grinder so the loss of life doesn’t matter. That is what makes for all of the epic moments, not 1 manning level 9 bugs with flamethrower and a jetpack with relative ease.

          The game just isn’t made to be as fun solo queueing sadly.

          is also the natural progression of a PVE game. You have huge playtimes early on and it falls off hard after the first year when people get board. PvP games always retain players much much better (excl to big to die MMOs)

          • Zoot
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            32 months ago

            They continually took away the fun things, if Flameththrowers were truly “fixed” then it was at the worst possible time.

            Chose the railgun on first play; Amazing weapon, took down chargers, titans, all of it. It had a huge risk of exploding yourself. Quite a bit of fun honestly.

            Railgun now; Even if you manage not to explode yourself, its gonna take 20 shots to kill a titan. Maybe. Chargers? Good luck, 5 shots and you might take out its leg armor. Wtaf?

            Eruptor; Beast for bots. Took out missle launchers in a decent amount of time, you also would kill yourself if you shot it to close.

            Now: No risk sure, but you’re not gonna dismantle bots with it.

            Personally; I liked the guns being OP, you felt like a true war hero raging through, whos really only susceptible to being overrun. So you play careful, you retreat when bugs are going insane, you make sure to do objectives the right way. BUT YOU GOT TO HAVE FUN WITH WEAPONS YOU CHOSE.

            Now its either play the meta weapons, or yeah, you’re gonna fail every single base defense mission ever. Even when you always play with 3 other buddies in a discord call.

            Seriously, we went from base missions being a 100% success on level 5, and being insanely fun and tricky at 7. Now? Yeah, its a 100% for sure way to kill your operation even at level 5 because the guns simply suck ass.

          • @B312
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            22 months ago

            Honestly if they didn’t go so overboard on some of the nerfs people wouldn’t have cared as much and would’ve continued playing. Like the grenade pistol rework was not that bad and actually made it better in some ways. But most of the other nerfs weren’t justified. For example the flamer was good for keeping enemies at bay but its reload time, slow aiming speed and limited range made it so that there was an actual risk meaning you couldn’t just solo any but that jumped at you.

            There were also alot of duct tape solution nerfs like the railgun and eruptor which were bugged(both did way more damage than they actually should’ve) and instead of fixing them they just removed/nerfed crucial aspects to how they work. Because of all of that alot of guns were rarely if ever used, with people sticking to a few select weapons and not experimenting at all since most weapons would never be as effective as the meta weapons people would use.

  • Reddit is better.
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    312 months ago

    If you can earn it in-game, it’s not locked behind a paywall. Bad headline is bad.

  • @PunchingWood
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    152 months ago

    The headline screams ragebait from someone who doesn’t even play the game.

  • @MrNesser
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    42 months ago

    The original set of strategems were so damn cheap even if they were in game currency.

    Farming credits isn’t that hard and I’m surprised it wasn’t like this in the past.

  • @tripledip
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    32 months ago

    The least p2w game in the last decade. Somebody is mad about messing w the algorithm.

  • @[email protected]
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    -22 months ago

    it’s unfortunate that they are going down this route. stratagems are one of the main appeals of the game, missing out on primary, secondary, and throwable weapons due to not having a warbond isn’t nearly as disappointing IMO.

    something i’d like to emphasise for people who think this is no big deal, because you can earn credits by playing: not everyone has the game amount of time to play as you might. those players don’t have a choice of grind for it or pay for it, for them it’s pay for it or lack the stratagem.