Helldivers 2's buff-filled patch may have unintentionally upped the difficulty: 'Wait a moment ... you're saying the game is more difficult now?'

Helldivers 2 received a patch that reverted enemy spawn rates to pre-April levels, but players are reporting increased difficulty. The developers are investigating the issue.

Helldivers 2 received a huge new patch this week with over 100 tweaks to improve the game, including an alteration to the enemy spawn rate that was supposed to revert an unpopular change rolled out in April. Unfortunately, it seems it may not have worked as intended. 

In April, patch 01.000.300 increased patrol spawning when less than four Helldivers played together, but this was quickly met with outcry. Rather than making the spread of managed democracy a more enjoyable time, it had the exact opposite effect. Community manager Thomas 'Twinbeard' Petersson noted in May that the changes led to "to more enemies rearing their ugly heads than they're supposed to, indirectly to players feeling overrun," which obviously isn't ideal. At the time, Twinbeard confirmed that the changes would be reverted, even if it'd take "some time" to do, which brings us to the latest patch.

According to the latest patch notes, "patrol spawning is now back to how it worked before patch 01.000.300 with some slight tweaks so that the levels are less empty if you are far away from important locations with enemy presence." Even with those new tweaks, you'd think that this would make the game a little easier overall, but reactions from across the community tell a different story. 

"I played a level seven bot mission today and it felt like I was playing a nine. Constant and I mean literally constant waves of enemies," one Reddit user writes. "Yeah something is definitely off. Was on Vernen Wells and we had to fight constantly for 10 minutes pushing to the extraction point. Just patrols after patrols. Dropship after dropship," says another. 

Arrowhead has, at the very least, been made aware of the complaints, with Twinbeard responding on Discord: "Wait a moment. I haven't had time to play yet, but you're saying the game is more difficult now? Spawns and patrols being reverted should make it easier [as far as I know]. Have to monitor this before being able to clarify, but off the top of my head, it seems a bit strange [to be honest]."

So far, no official statement has been put out to acknowledge the situation, but it sounds like if the team *does *determine that things have become significantly harder, then even more changes might be on the way. For now, we'll just have to bask in our latest victory, as we've successfully saved the thousands of children on Vernen Wells in the ongoing Major Order. Who needs the Anti-Tank Mines, anyway?

While you're here, be sure to check out everything in the Helldivers 2 Viper Commandos Warbond, which was also released this week.