With Helldivers 2 balance patch incoming, the game's CEO says weapons that score more kills aren't always "overrepresented" in successful missions

Helldivers 2 is full of powerful weapons to smash up bots and squash bugs, ranging from satisfying firearms to explosive orbital strikes that often do more harm to you and your team than the actual enemies. Out of them all, though, one weapon stands out to game director Johan Pilestedt for having the best design.

The Helldivers 2 community is a fun place, especially when players remain as enthusiastic about the prosperity of Super Earth on social media as a real Helldiver would out on Erata Prime. There's no doubt the developers encourage this, with game director Johan Pilestedt recently branding the footage of flying Terminids as "propaganda from bug sympathizers" and refusing to acknowledge their existence.

Helldivers 2 players who literally want to watch the world burn have put forward a spicy suggestion for a new Stratagem, which sounds like it has the potential to be incredibly powerful, if not massively risky for your fellow teammates. Enter the idea of the Guard Dog Flamethrower – an auto-firing companion bot that can spew flames whenever it wants, at whatever it wants.

presents players with an abundance of different tools to eliminate the deadly armies of the Terminids and Automatons and Arrowhead Studios is giving fans some insight into how those Stratagems are created. One of the core components of the popular co-op shooter is the ability to call down equipment and support from the skies, most of which take the form of explosive air strikes or precision missile launches. They're undoubtedly one of the most fun aspects of and director Johan Pilestedt wants everyone to know how the team creates them.

Helldivers 2 got a pretty important patch this week, making those pesky Chargers and Bile Titans easier to deal with. But developer Arrowhead quietly added a new Terminid enemy you'll have to look above the battlefield to find.

The game director for Helldivers 2 has confirmed a horrifying detail about Terminids, revealing that the bug-like aliens are able to smell players. As one of two enemy factions in Helldivers 2, Terminids can be difficult to sneak by, and there's now confirmation as to why that is.

Helldivers 2 creator director Johan Pilestedt is teasing developer Arrowhead Studio's "grand plans" for the hit democracy-'em-up, letting slip that we can expect heaps of quality-of-life improvements based on the community's feedback. 

Helldivers 2 has exploded onto the gaming scene in a massive way. This co-operative third-person shooter packed with danger, action, humor, and surprises has already become one of this year’s most talked-about games. What some people may be less familiar with though is its progenitor. The original Helldivers, which debuted in 2015 (and is still active) is a co-op, multiplayer overhead twin-stick shooter packed with action, intensity, and plenty of challenging situations that a player might find themselves in.

I've written a bit about playing Helldivers 2 as a solo diver, noting that Arrowhead's frenetic shooter holds up surprisingly well when you rudely insist on treating it like an open world stealth sim, a la Metal Gear Solid V. The developers have weighed in on this front, commenting that strictly speaking, Helldivers 2 doesn't support stealth at all. It's just designed in an "agnostic", systems-first way and this in itself makes stealth a possibility. It's also a quiet attempt to capture something of the intricacy of a full-blown military simulator, while still being a very "arcadey" game at heart, which owes a little to Arrowhead's own collective time in the military.

Helldivers 2 game director Johan Pilestedt is pushing back against complaints about the most recent balance patch, specifically as it relates to the RS-422 railgun.

Helldivers 2's game director has a huge Warhammer habit, so if the hit shooter ever gets "giant microtransactions," you know why.

After a few incendiary statements from development and community figures poured kerosene on the debates dominating the Helldivers 2 player base after its recent balance patch, Arrowhead CEO and game director Johan Pilestedt stepped in to assure players that such snippy remarks are "not a message that the studio stands behind."