Helldivers 2’s Biggest Update to Date, Escalation of Freedom, Launches August 6 – PlayStation.Blog

Welcome to Escalation of Freedom, Helldivers. We’ve taken the time to gather feedback from players on the front lines, and we’re bringing more variety to our content. From missions and objectives to enemies and planets, we’re delivering plenty of new content for both veteran players and Helldivers brand new to the battlefield. Get ready for our biggest update yet!

Our community continues to show us the power of all of us together against the mindless Automatons and the scourge of Terminid. As we stand here on the eve of Escalation of Freedom, we reflect on the 6 months since launch. We could never have predicted how far this game would go and how many Citizens would answer Super Earth’s call to arms!

We’ve watched our forces deftly handle every conflict and challenge we’ve thrown at them, from flying enemies to the Terminid Control System, to saving children at Super Citizen Anne’s Hospital. Now, for this major update, it’s time to give back to the community and welcome even more players to the Helldivers universe.

Helldivers, the situation is escalating rapidly.

Take a super hell dive

Face off against new mega robot fortresses.

One thing that continues to surprise us is the insatiable desire of players for more bugs, more bots, more escapes, and more destruction. We thought Helldiving’s nine difficulty levels were enough, but in Escalation of Freedom, we increased it to 10… The combat rating is 10.

CR 10: Super Helldive is our most difficult and extreme dive level to date, and we hope this will give players the intensity they’re looking for on the battlefield. And with a great challenge comes great rewards.

The larval recovery mission involves Helldivers watching over a bug.

But a new difficulty level isn’t the only thing the community has asked for. We’ve also heard your desire for mission variety, which is why we’re bringing you new mission objectives and larger enemy outposts for both bots and bugs, offering brand new Supermoon rewards. These outposts will be heavily fortified and will require players to coordinate and strategize to destroy them.

And if you’re new to Helldivers 2, you don’t have to worry about missing out on all the fun until you unlock Super Helldive, as many of our new mission objectives are playable at different difficulty levels.

New enemies and dangerous swamps

The Impaler is back!

The escalation of Freedom is opening up some new threats to our liberties that Helldivers will have to come up with serious strategies to destroy.

Returning by popular request: the Impaler! This big guy from the original Helldivers creates some new challenges. You can no longer run away from bugs when the Impaler is around – big, bulky, and destructive, it demands to be dealt with.

Also new to the Terminid ranks is the Spore Charger. As if the regular old Charger wasn’t scary enough, the Spore Charger is also shrouded in mist to hide its location until it’s right on top of you, Helldiver.

New Spore Charger in the Mist.

Finally, there’s Terminid Alpha Commander, a super-powered Brood Commander who’s bigger, more ferocious, and doesn’t hesitate to call in other bugs for support.

Think the regular Brood Commander is bad? Think again.

Don’t think we forgot about the Automatons. Their roster is growing too, with the addition of the formidable Rocket Tank, as well as some other surprise bots we’ll throw at you.

The Automaton Rebellion continues.

Explore the swamp but not as you know it, with fog and wild vegetation, dark trees blocking out light and the atmosphere itself feeling haunted. Always carry a flashlight as visibility is limited and light is key. Enemies can be hiding anywhere in the bushes.

Panic, Helldivers.

Under the hood

The final point I want to highlight about the Escalation of Freedom update is that we are making changes to mitigate the issue of griefing stones in Helldivers 2. While we hope that players will engage in good faith and sportsmanship, we also recognize that some players are using group kicks to grief others.

To help improve this, we’ve implemented a system where if a player is kicked, they will appear in a new session as the host with all of the team’s loot from the previous session. Now, all items can be picked up by the player before extraction. The team that did the kicking will see a notification in the chat widget that a player has been kicked, but their loot will remain unchanged.

With these changes, all players will have the opportunity to leave with all the loot collected during the mission, with no Helldivers being lost. We are committed to making changes that will improve the player experience and encourage healthy cooperative play.

Along with that, we’ll also be releasing other quality of life upgrades with Escalation of Freedom, including major fixes to the social menu to make it easier to dive in with friends.

Overall, we think this escalation will be filled with great additions, long-awaited improvements, and tons of surprises to discover! Helldivers 2: Escalation of Freedom is coming August 6th!