Summary

  • Helldivers 2's latest update introduced shovels—an unexpected, unannounced addition to the game.
  • Players are speculating about the usefulness of shovels, as they cannot be equipped as weapons yet.
  • The update also adjusted stratagems, weapons, and backpacks, improving overall gameplay.

As Helldivers 2 players dive into the recently released update, they come across shovels—an unannounced addition to the game. Helldivers 2 has just launched a big update for 2025, introducing important changes across several aspects of the game, though the patch notes forgot to mention a crucial detail that players are now noticing.

Helldivers 2’s steady flow of updates has kept the game fresh and fun while addressing the issues that constantly arise. After wrapping up a successful 2024, Helldivers 2 is gearing up to offer players another year packed with exciting content and requested features. As players jump into its frenetic gameplay to battle alien threats and save Super Earth, Arrowhead continues working to enhance the experience. The latest Helldivers 2 patch brought some necessary fixes and adjustments—and it also sneaked in a new tool that wasn’t mentioned in the patch notes.

helldivers 2 creative director johan pilestedt leaves sabbatical
Helldivers 2 Creative Director Stepping Away From The Game

Helldivers 2 creative director Johan Pilestedt announces on social media that he is stepping away from the game after 11 years of dedicated work.

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After diving into the game following Helldivers 2’s update 01.002.101, the Reddit user known as The_Fighter03 ran into shovels. They shared a video with the community showing the player using a shovel to dig a hole in the ground to uncover some buried resources. It’s unclear how much a player can dig, but in the video, they keep expanding the hole’s width, and its depth eventually reaches the Helldiver’s height. What makes this discovery particularly surprising is Arrowhead’s omission of it in the patch notes, raising the question of whether the patch may feature even more secret additions.

Helldivers 2's Latest Update Secretly Added Shovels

In the post’s comments, players discussed the shovels’ utility and functionality. One of them explained that shovels have been introduced as POI items, meaning they cannot be equipped as weapons for Helldivers yet. Some fans think they will likely be added to the loadout as a secondary weapon in the future. Others believe using a stratagem slot to equip shovels could make things more difficult, as they might not be as useful as support weapons. However, this is just speculation.

In addition to secretly adding shovels to the game, update 01.002.101 introduced changes to Helldivers 2’s stratagems, tweaking cooldowns and damage, adjusting weapons, and making other refinements. For instance, the backpack was reworked to make it more effective, impacting its targeting range, ammo, and gas status effect.

Even though players are concerned about how shovels will ultimately function in Helldivers 2, many expressed excitement about this unexpected addition. As players venture into the game’s chaotic missions, they now have a new tool to experiment with.

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Helldivers 2 Tag Page Cover Art
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Third-Person Shooter
Extraction Shooter
Action
Science Fiction
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Systems
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Top Critic Avg: 83 /100 Critics Rec: 91%
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Released
February 8, 2024
ESRB
Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, In-Game Purchases, Users Interact
Developer(s)
Arrowhead Game Studios, Nixxes
Publisher(s)
Sony Interactive Entertainment, PlayStation Publishing
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Helldivers 2 Press Image 1
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WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL
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Genre(s)
Third-Person Shooter, Extraction Shooter, Action, Science Fiction