Helldivers 2 server and rewards patch released then rolled back to fix "significant" performance issues

13.02.2024 - 12:27 / rockpapershotgun.com

Much like a lone Super Earther descending from orbit, only to Nope The Heck back to their spaceship after glimpsing the insect hordes, Arrowhead have released and swiftly pulled a Helldivers 2 patch designed to address the new shooter's server capacity and progression issues. The bugs were too much to handle, I guess! Lord, this news post practically writes itself.

As with previous Helldivers 2 updates, the patch - Patch 005, to be precise - is designed to fix problems created by the sheer number of players trying to sign in, while also addressing broken progression and mission reward systems. It has, however, caused "a significant degradation in performance" for some players, leading Arrowhead to roll it back, though the fixes for mission rewards are still live, somehow.

Here's the official changelog from Arrowhead's lead producer Alex Bolle, which was posted overnight.

These issues are caused mostly by having so many players in the game and server capacity creating unexpected behaviors.

Let me update you on what we did so far with the latest patch being deployed:

Server Capacity and log in access:

We have eased the authentication request overall.

We have improved error message visibility and added a countdown timer to clearly show when a new attempt will be made.

Progression and mission reward not being granted:

We fixed the daily and difficulty progression error

Based on the testing we have done we believe we have fixed future mission rewards but will continue to monitor this closely as it is our top priority

To compensate for lost rewards, we are working on an increased reward event

And here's a subsequent Reddit update reminiscent of a panicky radio chatter from troopers in the trenches, wherein Arrowhead say "we have rolled back the patch due to some users experiencing significant degradation in performance" adding that "the mission reward fix will not be affected by this". It's not clear when the patch will be available again.

Bolle ended his changelog post by saying "thanks for being awesome and supporting our devs and remember, as we say in my country.... Liberté, Fraternité, Égalité". I find this amusing inasmuch as "Liberté, Fraternité, Égalité" is a national motto that dates back to the French Revolution and survived the fall of the Republic. Helldivers 2, meanwhile, is a satire of fascist nationalism. I'm not a scholar of French political history, but I feel like there are probably some fun contrasts or parallels here that better-informed people could run with. Bonus points if you can make an insect comparison.