Helldivers 2's annoying armored enemies are getting nerfed, devs look to tone down "spawn rates and health pools"

If you're tired of getting chewed out by seemingly indestructible bots and bugs, I've got good news. Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead Game Studios is working on what's handily been the most-requested balance change since launch: nerfs to the Chargers, Hulks, Bile Titans, and other heavy enemies that are currently running roughshod over even the most democratic players.

In a post to the game's official Discord, published earlier today on the heels of a balance patch which made many heavy enemies even harder to deal with and subsequently ignited some ugly debates, community manager Spitz shared some good news: 

"I wanted to take a moment this afternoon to let you all know that we've heard your concerns over the last few days regarding enemy spawns, enemy armor, and the ability to kill these enemies. As we've said before, our teams are always taking in player feedback and looking at how we can tweak the game to ensure that it is fair, enjoyable and provides the best experience for everyone. 

"I can confirm that we're currently looking at changes to the spawn rates and health pools of heavy enemies, and will be attempting to spread them out more to prevent large spikes of tougher mobs appearing at the same time, as well as making them a bit easier to bring down. This change should go out in a future hotfix - no date as of yet. Thanks as always for your patience!"

The enemies themselves are fine in isolation, but when the battlefield has more big dudes than a Strongman competition, things can fall apart quickly. Your best Helldivers 2 Stratagems are on cooldown, your grenades may as well be paper balls, and your heavy weapon – whether it's a railgun or a new favorite like the flamethrower – can only fire so fast. 

While the actual in-game changes remain to be seen, this statement does address the biggest pain points in the Helldivers 2 community. Simply put, there are too many dang armored enemies and not enough anti-armor options to handle them. Out of absolutely nowhere, entire packs of Charger bugs and Hulk bots will roll up, or fall out of the freakin' sky, and absolutely ruin your day with impunity, and this only gets worse as you crank up the difficulty in Helldivers 2, perhaps in pursuit of those elusive super rare samples. 

Meaningful changes to this enemy class, more than any weapon tweak, have the potential to shift the meta and dramatically improve the high-level experience, so here's hoping this update and its attached hotfix come soon. 

As an added bonus, Smitz added in an update: "In addition, we forgot to mention (oops) that the EAT-17 and Recoilless Rifle no longer suffer from a 50% damage decrease when hitting an armored enemy at a 'glance angle' that deflects the shot. Combined with the upcoming adjustment to health and spawn rates, this should make the larger enemies a bit less common, instead spawning more 'chaff' enemies to support them, and should allow players to bring these enemies down with a single well-placed shot. Hopefully this leads to less instances of endless kiting and players being left without any effective weaponry to kill harder enemies." 

Here's the hard place to go with the rock: as Helldivers 2 players all-in on anti-tank Stratagems, dev advises "tailoring their loadouts to kill weaker stuff" too because guns are intentionally wimpy.