Helldivers 2 New Warbond Has A License To Chill

With a new month comes a new Helldivers 2 premium Warbond – and we must be getting into the cold season, because this is one cool warbond.

Named Polar Patriots, your Helldiver can get rugged up and bring the heat with a modernised Molotov cocktail – and a punchy plasma rifle that punches right through walker armour:

While the landscape might be cool, these weapons are looking very hot – offering some new and exciting ways to slam bots and bugs alike. A new revolver? Right when the developers added the ability to spin your hand cannon around for funsies? Oh boy, tell me I can do it with this one as well:

• P-113 Verdict
  The guys in R&D love this one. Gas-operated, semi-automatic, and chambers the largest centrefire cartridge of any lunpistol of its kind. “Rapid Deliberation”, they call it. Quick-draw to look cool in front of your squad.
• AR-61 Tenderizer
  A real tentacle-tearer. This high calibre assault rifle has awesome stopping power but limited magazine size, so make each shot count. Unpatriotic “banter” shots are not advisable.
• SMG-72 Pummeler
  A slower rate of fire than your other SMGs but these concussive rounds will leave your enemies dazed, confused, and still very ugly. Good things come to Helldivers who wait.
• PLAS-101 Purifier
  Set the trap. Hold the trigger. Let them charge at you. Smile. They’re getting closer. Smile again. Closer. Smile. Closer. Smile. Closer… and release the trigger. S.P.L.A.T. The longer you can hold your nerve, and the trigger, the bigger the damage.
• G-13 Incendiary Impact
  Don’t waste time reading the instructions, lob it at the enemy and run. This thing detonates on impact and ignites the area in white phosphorus, so make sure you – and your allies – are not standing around having a chat.

Plugging some fun gaps in the Helldivers weapon ranks, it is great that we are getting another SMG to address the limited options for one-handed run’n’gun – those missions where you need to lug around a giant hard drive are begging for more gun flavour. I am also intrigued by the idea of a fire grenade that is worth using – the existing incendiary grenade is grossly underwhelming because all it does it set it’s target on fire, but this one leaves a delicious puddle of burny goodness under it’s initial recipient. Jump on in, the water is fire fine.

The one thing that has me a little concern however, is the new booster that is being added – this guy:

• Motivational Shocks
  Literally shocks Helldivers back into action after being hit and slowed by sneaky, unjust attacks like the revolting bug acid vomit. Won’t help you much with area effects like EMS strikes, though.

So, it is a booster that will address when your character has been slowed. Now, I will be blunt here: Helldivers 2 has a weird over-reliance on slow mechanics, particularly when fighting bugs. Hit by vomit? Slowed. Hit by claws? Slowed. Hit by weird tongue things? Yup, slowed. It’s a pain in the arse, and a long term pain point for many players. I personally wanted to see some tuning done to the amount of things that can slow you, and perhaps the duration and severity of the slows involved – so seeing a booster added to address it, particularly one in a premium Warbond – feels a bit sour.

At least a squad booster is applied to the whole squad, and the ability to farm the premium credits in game means that it’s very accessible to all players – but it’s not quite the outcome I dreamed of. But, the crew over at Arrowhead have done more things to build up my confidence than ruin it, so I will continue to offer my benefit of the doubt.

On a slightly more cosmetic note, there is also some familiar Victory Pose emotes being added. One titled ‘Distribute Ballots’ is clearly an amazing reference to the classic ‘Make It Rain’ motion – just clearly more democratically themed – but the real hero here is an emote titled ‘Mime Instrumentation’. That is clearly AIR GUITAR, and I will stand by a prior statement of mine that everything is better with air guitar.

You’ll be able to get your hands on these new toys (provided you have enough Super Credits™) next week, May 10.

Any glorious device tickle your fancy in this Warbond? Are you excited for the friendliest fire grenades ever? Let us know in the comments or on social media.