Helldivers 2 players may “Let Super Earth burn” to protest controversial patch
SonyThe Helldivers 2 community is willing to let the Automatons take Super Earth to protest the controversial Escalation of Freedom nerfs.
Arrowhead unleashed the Escalation of Freedom update on August 6 to the delight of players. However, the excitement quickly escalated into resentment when the community realized the severity of the latest balance adjustments.
Helldivers 2 weapons and Stratagems, such as the GP-31 Grenade Pistol and Orbital 120mm HE Barrage, received nerfs targeting ammo capacity and cooldown periods.
But flame effects took the biggest hit. To make fire “work more realistically,” the studio reduced the effectiveness of Flamethrowers and the like. Such changes especially rocked the community since the new Premium Warbond, Freedom’s Flame, includes several incendiary weapons.
A contingent of the user base started review bombing Helldivers 2 on Steam as a result. Others think the protest should happen in-game, specifically by letting the Automatons reach Super Earth uncontested.
“Let the Bots advance. Let the Super Earth burn,” reads a post on the Helldivers 2 subreddit with nearly 3,000 upvotes.
The disgruntled soldier who penned the post criticized Super Earth leaders for lying to their citizens and stealing power from the Helldivers.
This act of treason proposes that players refuse to fight back against the incoming Automatons. While some question how Helldivers 2’s Game Master, Joel, would react to such behavior, others find the idea compelling.
After all, as one Redditor put it, “Sucky guns and outclassed artillery lose wars! So, we can’t defend Super Earth because our enemies have better weapons than us and Super Earth can only produce crap for us to fight with.”
Another Helldivers 2 fan said of the Escalation of Freedom drama, “Super Earth itself thinks it’s not worth the money to defend itself so why should we care?”
Arrowhead’s CEO has responded to the criticism, promising to improve communication between the developer and its user base.
But whether or not Super Earth will get its act together before the bots start knocking on its door remains to be seen. As of writing, there’s still a lot of ground to cover before every currently available Automaton sector is liberated.