Helldivers 2 players ask devs to revert massive nerf to this popular weapon

Helldivers 2 is currently recovering from its orbital bombardment by negative reviews and has introduced a new patch aiming to rebalance the game more following its recent big balance update. Not all changes were well received, though, with one popular weapon causing division among players.

The weapon in question is the R-36 Eruptor, a rifle loaded with explosive rounds that used to have a ton of shrapnel splattering around, decimating nearby bots or bugs. The shrapnel mechanic was so strong players were advised not to shoot directly at enemies, but at the ground around them, since it would do much more damage. However, a side effect of said shrapnel was that players would often find themselves in the blast radius, and get killed in the process. Since it was causing a ton of disruption in matches where players were spamming the Eruptor left and right, Arrowhead decided to remove the shrapnel altogether and buff its damage—a decision some say ruined the weapon.

Over the past day, several Reddit threads have cropped up on the Helldivers subreddit arguing Arrowhead should reverse the changes introduced to the R-36 Eruptor. “Reddit has killed one of the most fun weapons we got in the game,” one disgruntled player wrote, and blamed complaining players for pressuring Arrowhead into making the change. They also argued the extra damage does not do enough to mitigate the loss of shrapnel, and “does not keep the gun at the same level” as before.

In another thread, however, a user posted messages exchanged between a player and Arrowhead developer Twinbeard, who claimed the R-36 Eruptor changes aren’t working “as intended.”

“There are two or three things we’ve noticed aren’t working as intended,” Twinbeard wrote, and added that the shrapnel change is one of them. This left many fans hopeful Arrowhead will reverse or introduce something new to reimagine the Eruptor in a way that will allow it to keep its power and be less disruptive.

Helldivers 2‘s recent patch introduced several buffs, nerfs, and tweaks following the game’s massive balance update and a weekend of hell kickstarted by Sony’s mandatory PSN sign-ups. You can check out the full patch notes here.