Helldivers 2 is as unforgiving a game as they come but a nasty bug impacting its Armor Rating system might cause players opting for heavy armor even more grief.
Helldivers 2 is quickly approaching sleeper hit status. Some hiccups with the servers at launch slowed things down a little but having too many players wanting to dive in at once is a good problem to have.
Players have fallen in love with its seamless multiplayer experience and fast-paced action. Something about using Helldivers 2’s suite of guns and impactful Strategems to annihilate hordes of Termanids and Automatons is uniquely satisfying.
Of course, bringing glorious democracy to a troubled galaxy is fraught with peril but it might be more perilous for players in heavy armor. Reddit user u/Wulfrayne has revealed a quick test that shows a possible bug that completely neutralizes the effects of Armor Rating and Extra Padding.
The player’s test shows two builds with a massive gap in Armor Rating eating damage from a Scavenger to determine the amount of hits it takes to die. A build with an Armor Rating of 56 and one with an Armor Rating of 144 each die in six hits.
This means that there is seemingly no benefit to heavy armor but the drawbacks on agility and movement speed still apply. Heavily armored players are effectively unable to tank hits and can’t widen the gap between enemies as well as lightly armored players in Helldivers 2.
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Players in the comments noted that agility seems to be a far more useful trait in Helldivers 2, though this bug could be why. “You’re just overwhelmed too easily,” one Helldiver said. “Mobility has kept me damage-free far more often.”
Many players are reporting similar issues with Helldivers 2’s heavy armor sets. “I tried heavy for the first time last night and just thought it wasn’t worth it,” one user reported. “Didn’t feel like it took that much more damage considering how slow it is.”
Some Helldivers jokingly accused u/Wulfrayne of spreading “bug propaganda” to weaken morale and even threatened to report them to their “local democracy officer”. Others didn’t seem to be perturbed by the issues with heavy armor in Helldivers 2.
“Good info,” a player conceded. “I will continue only using heavy armor regardless.” Apparently, in the battle for democracy, drip is just as important as efficacy.