Summary
- Helldivers 2 patch 01.003.101 welcomes buffs and nerfs, administers fixes, and balances gameplay elements.
- Players can now self-administer stims mid-dive, and Leviathan's projectile damage has been reduced from 1500 to 350.
Arrowhead Game Studios has released a brand-new June 2025 update for Helldivers 2, welcoming weapon buffs and Illuminate nerfs in patch 01.003.101. Helldivers 2 players were first introduced to Super Earth back in February 2024, taking part in first-person co-op action to protect humanity from a variety of threats. Battling hordes of Terminids and Automatons delivered exhilarating and often comical gameplay clips from the gaming community, and the dev team has continued to keep the shooter addictively engaging.
Helldivers 2 released to critical and commercial success and scooped several awards in its release year, as well as being a shoo-in for Game of the Year 2024. The shooter recently received a wave of review-bombing, but Helldivers 2 players banded together to perform a reverse review-bomb to restore its positive rating on the PC platform Steam. There’s nothing Helldivers cannot achieve in the name of democracy.
Helldivers 2 Clip Shows Player ‘Surfing’ on a Leviathan
A brave Helldivers 2 player shares a clip of them managing to mount and surf on a Leviathan, one of the game's deadliest new enemy types.
Preceding the release of Helldivers 2’s new premium Warbond Force of Law, the developer has deployed a new update to the shooter, and noted patch 01.003.101’s notes over on Discord. The update includes a change to the Ministry of Humanity’s Combat Mobility Safety Guidelines, which now allows Helldivers to self-administer stims while mid-dive. Another highlight of the patch involves the game’s enemies, who will no longer be able to automatically detect players when they’re near Terminid spawners. Additionally, the update included several fixes to weapons and stratagems, crashes, and specific missions, such as the “Take Down Overship” objective.
Helldivers 2 players were grateful for the free rewards after winning the Battle of Super Earth event, and the community is also praising the latest patch. Some were shocked to see Leviathan’s damage being reduced from a whopping 1500 to 350, designed to ensure Helldivers are still taken out on direct impact, alongside preventing the Exosuits' and FRVs' instant downfall.
The update’s arrival has perfectly coincided with an exciting new purchase on players’ radars, since fans can grab their very own Helldivers 2 replica helmets. Courtesy of Arrowhead’s partnership with Dark Horse Comics, the polyresin helmets are based on three in-game armor sets, and they’re currently up for pre-order. Expected to release in Q2 2026, Helldivers will soon be able to experience future updates’ exciting additions from the comfort of their war-torn battle helmets.
Helldivers 2 update 01.003.101 patch notes
Balancing
General
- The Ministry of Humanity has issued an amendment to its Combat Mobility Safety Guidelines, now permitting Helldivers to self-administer stims while in mid-dive, an act previously categorized in the same risk zone as “running with scissors” and “juggling live grenades”
Primary weapons
R-2 Amendment
- Increased ergonomics from 35 to 50
Sidearms
P-2 Peacemaker
- Increased starting magazines from 4 to 5
- Increased max spare magazines from 6 to 8
- Increased damage from 75 to 85
- Increased durable damage from 15 to 25
Armor Passives
Integrated Explosives
- Now also increases initial inventory and holding capacity of grenades by +2
Unflinching
- This passive has been adjusted to better reflect the core doctrine of the Truth Enforcers Warbond—relentless pursuit, battlefield awareness, and overwhelming presence
- Now also increases armor rating by 25
- Markers placed on the map will generate a radar scan every 2.0s, revealing nearby hostiles
Enemies
General Stealth Detection Update
- Enemies will no longer automatically detect you when you’re near Terminid spawners or spawners that generate flying enemies. Instead, these spawners will now only activate if an enemy has already identified you as a target
- Previously, simply being within 200 meters of certain spawner types—such as flying enemy spawners, Stalker lairs, or inside Terminid locations—would trigger immediate enemy spawns and reveal your location. This update shifts detection to a more logical, line-of-sight or alert-based system, reducing arbitrary auto-detection mechanics and improving stealth gameplay
- As a result of these changes, Automaton Fabricators now spawn enemies more consistently, ensuring smoother pacing and engagement balance
Objectives
Take Down Overship
- The Planetary Defense Cannon now causes an appropriate amount of damage when shooting at Leviathans
Illuminate
Harvester
- Their health has been rebalanced to make them easier to destroy using anti-tank weapons, particularly when aiming at their head
Overseers
- Reduced the frequency of Elevated Overseers spawning during Prevent Invasion Foothold missions
- Overseers can now occasionally spawn from landed dropships at outposts, adding variety to their battlefield presence
Leviathan
- Projectile damage was reduced from 1500 to 350. The intent is to ensure Helldivers are still eliminated on direct impact, while preventing instant destruction of Exosuits and FRVs
- Explosion damage and radius from turret shots have been increased to maintain lethality through area denial
Automatons
Factory Strider
- Slightly increased the health of its feet. It should no longer be destroyed by a single GR-8 Recoilless Rifle shot to the legs
Fixes
Crash Fixes, Hangs and Soft-locks
- Fixed a crash that could happen after any player disconnects
- Fixed some crashes that were caused by browsing different weapon attachments
Weapons and Stratagems
- Fixed RS-422 Railgun scope’s screen not displaying the heat level correctly
- Entrenchment tool’s stamina cost now properly matches other melee weapons
- Fixed an issue where melee attacks inside shield relays were not registering properly
Enemies
- Fixed two cases where the Stingray enemy would appear to stop or teleport on death
Missions
- Fixed an issue with the ‘Take Down Overship’ mission where the Overship explosion did not always trigger for client players
- Fixed a rare issue in ‘Take Down Overship’ where the Overship could get destroyed and not trigger the objective completion
- Fixed an issue with the ‘Deploy Seismic Probe’ mission that could make it incompletable if you completed a Lidar side objective while a seismic probe had been called down
- Fixed an issue with the drill not falling correctly for clients on the ‘Nuke Nursery’ mission
- Fixed an issue with super samples failing to spawn in cities
Miscellaneous Fixes
- Fixed a bug that was causing Helldivers to slide while using the Lockstep march emote
- Fixed an issue with friendly & enemy pathing around the Shuttlebay location
- Fix a bug that was causing the Helldiver to hold pickups as weapons when switching between weapons right after picking up an item
- Fixed missing attachments for SEAF soldiers
- Game will now show error message if resources cannot be loaded correctly
- Fixed a flickering issue that sometimes would occur in the loadout menu’s Helldiver previews
- Fixed jitter while interacting with the Armory
Helldivers 2
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 83 /100 Critics Rec: 91%
- 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
WHERE TO PLAY
- Engine
- bitsquid
- Genre(s)
- Third-Person Shooter, Extraction Shooter, Action, Science Fiction
