Huge Helldivers 2 balance patch nerfs some of the shooter's most popular weapons, including the Quasar Canon

The latest Helldivers 2 patch is wall to wall nerfs, and no one's particularly happy with the weapon changes.

The latest balance patch for Helldivers 2 went live today, April 29, and it's one beefy update. There are a lot of weapon nerfs in the new patch, including the mega-popular Quasar Canon, Exploding Crossbow, Laser Canon, Eruptor, Sickle, Dominator, and the Guard Dog, in addition to other tweaks, adjustments, and bug fixes.

For example, the Exploding Crossbow now has a smaller explosion and number of magazines, while the Quasar Canon has had its recharge time increased, and the Laser Canon has reduced damage versus a large number of enemies. The Eruptor's explosion damage now drops off faster over its radius, the Sickle has a decreased number of maximum magazines, and the Guard Dog has seen its damage decrease by a huge 30%.

That's a lot of weapon nerfs, and players aren't necessarily pleased. "Oh no, they decreased the amount of democracy I can spread with the Quasar Cannon," responded one Twitter user to the post above. "Literally just nerfs. This is a joke, right?" wrote another user. That's not entirely true - fire damage has been decreased by 15%, for example, and the Blitzer weapon now has increased shots per minute.

Plenty of players are mourning the Quasar Canon, though. The Quasar Canon was a fan-favorite among Helldivers 2 players earlier this month due to its ability to one-shot enemies like Automaton dropships, but players aren't pleased about the five-second increase for the Stratagem weapon's reload time. Yes, the five seconds really can make a huge difference.

Finally, in noteworthy changes, enemy patrol spawns have now increased for when there are less than four players in a squad. The lower the player count, the bigger the change in enemy patrol frequency will be, but four-player squads will effectively be unchanged. That could have major consequences for Helldivers 2 players who choose to go it alone.

In other news, Helldivers 2 devs are adjusting Automaton citizen evac missions "in the near future" because they're "$€@!£X@&! impossible on higher difficulty levels."