There’s a temporary truce in Helldivers 2‘s Galactic War, after a game-breaking bug introduced during maintenance.
The issue sprung up yesterday, after Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead issued an update to the game’s backend. The problem saw planet liberation rates skyrocket – which is a good thing… until it isn’t.
“While we know this is fun, we also know that it is breaking the Galactic War mechanic itself,” Arrowhead wrote in a post on social media. “In short, this is harming the game experience and will have detrimental effects on the war mechanic in the future.”
While players’ sudden tide of victory will not be turned back, Arrowhead has frozen the Galactic War so no further damage to the game’s balance is done.
“We have made the decision to pause the Galactic War temporarily until this is fixed,” Arrowhead continued. “We’re already starting the process, but we do not yet have an ETA for this fix.”
In the meantime, Helldivers 2 will remain fully playable, but victories will not contribute to the wider goal of liberating planets within the war.
“This is our mistake and we own it,” Arrowhead concluded. “We are not going to revert any of the damage done by this error, however, so your major order victory is still secure.”
In January, Helldivers 2 creative director Johan Pilestedt announced he was taking a sabbatical after working for 11 years on the series, but would return to begin develoment on the studio’s next game.
Earlier this month, Digital Foundry analysed a ‘stealth’ update to Helldivers 2 that improved the game’s performance for PS5 Pro.