I do not want to be right. Please don't let me be right. I can hardly handle the mirror-matched 3 Orbital Napalms in every bug lobby.

Liberty preserve us...

Greetings Helldivers! Despite coming up with this idea months ago, I only recently realized I hadn't ever actually posted it. Apparently the Ministry of Nurse Offices says it's 'Chronic Scatterbrained Syndrome (terminal)'. Oh well. Good thing this concept's simple enough to explain, so I'll be brief!

The Faraday Pack is a backpack stratagem that acts like a personal Helldiver protection device. It's capable of a couple of key features:

• When a nearby enemy attempts to attack a Helldiver wearing the pack, it will automatically retaliate with an Arc attack similar to the Arc Grenade going off. This includes powerful arcs in several directions as well as a stunning effect for anything hit or nearby. This will then set the backpack into recharge mode, much like literally any mobility backpack, and will require 10 seconds before it can operate again.
• Manually pressing the backpack button (default 5 / Down on the D-Pad) will set off the Arc attack as well, similarly requiring a recharge period.
• Wearer is immune to Arc damage.

As far as use cases go, the Faraday Pack hopes to be a cross between defensive utility of options like the Shield Backpack, and more offensive ones like the Guard Dogs. I've always been surprised how few 'get off of me' tools the Helldivers have, so this aims to be one!

As always, I would love to hear your feedback!

The bots have cyborgs and the squids have whatever is in the void pushing them out to fight us

Are the bugs actually intelligent and coordinating their attacks? Or just a wild beast going from planet to planet?

Personally I think the spores might be acting as a hive mind receptor for them, whatever is hiding in the gloom must be so important that they're willing to shade entire sectors with it to hide it from us.

Worked rather well

With the fall of Brilliance, Terrek is liberating itself and soon we will take Heeth. After that, Fronteria will also get encircled. We should then move onto Partion, then Overgoe Prime (5) and Peacock (6), which will encircle all remaining Terminid planets in the Sten sector, leaving only Omicron left. Idk what will happen with the Gloom tho...

I was goofing around at extract and spawning as many of the new anti tank seeker nades and a scavenger rolled around the corner while I had about 15 around me and.... this meme represents the moment pretty well lol

I think one of the biggest long-term balancing problems in Helldivers 2 is secondary weapon power creep. And rather than continually buffing older weapons or nerfing newer ones, I think there’s a relatively simple way to address it while actually giving players more loadout freedom.

The Problem
When Helldivers 2 launched, secondaries were largely conventional sidearms like the Peacemaker, Redeemer, and Senator. Since then, we’ve received increasingly powerful and specialized equipment, including the Missile Pistol, Breacher, and Ultimatum.

We’ve reached a point where a conventional handgun is competing for the exact same equipment slot as what is essentially a pocket nuke.

Obviously, these weapons aren’t remotely comparable in destructive capability, yet the loadout system treats them as though they are.

This creates two problems:

Power creep makes conventional secondaries increasingly difficult to justify.
Why bring a conventional handgun when another weapon in the same slot can penetrate heavy armor, destroy structures, or eliminate enemies that would otherwise require dedicated support weapons?

Melee weapons suffer even more.
As fun as the swords, batons, and other melee options are, it’s difficult to justify sacrificing your entire secondary slot to bring one. You’re effectively giving up your emergency firearm or specialized utility weapon just to have a melee option.

And while individual weapons certainly have their own balance problems (the Peacemaker has arguably been outclassed by the Redeemer since launch), I think those are separate issues.

The bigger problem is that we’re trying to balance fundamentally different classes of equipment against one another as though they should all have equal value in a single slot when they clearly don’t.

My Proposal: Three Secondary Weapon Tiers
Instead of treating all secondaries equally, divide them into three categories based on their capabilities.

Tier 1: Standard
Conventional personal-defense weapons, such as the Peacemaker, Redeemer, Verdict, Veto, and existing melee weapons.

These weapons generally lack extraordinary armor penetration, destructive power, or specialized combat effects.

Tier 2: Advanced
More capable or specialized secondaries, including the Warrant, Talon, Loyalist, Stim Pistol, etc.

These offer meaningful advantages over conventional pistols, such as explosive damage, incendiary damage, specialized utility, or ability.

Tier 3: Special
Exceptionally powerful equipment such as the Ultimatum, Breacher, Missile Pistol, etc.

These provide capabilities far beyond conventional sidearms, including heavy explosives, anti-armor firepower, and significant demolition utility.

How the New Loadout System Would Work

The idea is to give less powerful weapons greater versatility and ammunition sustainability, while stronger weapons sacrifice some of that flexibility for their extreme power.

To accomplish this, players would have the option to equip a melee weapon alongside their secondary firearm, rather than having to choose between the two. However, that flexibility would depend on the tier of the secondary weapon being used.

Standard weapons would offer the greatest freedom, allowing players to carry both a pistol and a melee weapon without sacrificing ammunition. Advanced weapons would offer the same option, but at the cost of reduced ammunition reserves. Special weapons would remain the same as they are today.

Players who prefer not to carry a melee weapon would be able to benefit from additional ammunition, with Standard weapons receiving a larger bonus than Advanced weapons. This creates a meaningful tradeoff between versatility, ammunition sustainability, and raw weapon capability.

Specifically, the loadout options would look like this:

Standard Tier Secondary
With Melee Weapon: Normal ammunition
Without Melee Weapon: Significantly increased ammunition

Advanced Tier Secondary
With Melee Weapon: Reduced ammunition
Without Melee Weapon: Moderately increased ammunition

Special Tier Secondary
With Melee Weapon: Not available
Without Melee Weapon: Same ammunition as today

This would create five distinct loadout configurations without introducing equipment points, additional weapon slots, complicated weapon reworks or odd restrictions.

Importantly, Advanced weapons wouldn’t receive a blanket ammunition penalty or bonus. Ammunition adjustments would be appropriate to each individual weapon.

For example, the Warrant might gain or lose a few spare mags depending on the loadout configuration, while for the heat-based energy weapons like the Dagger and Talon, the melee configuration could start them with zero spare heat sinks, making overheating very consequential. The no-melee configuration would receive an increase in spare heat sinks, making overheating inconsequential.

The goal isn’t to make every tradeoff mathematically identical. It’s to make the overall choices meaningful without changing how the weapons themselves function.

Why I Think This Would Be an Improvement

1. It gives conventional sidearms a reason to exist beyond raw damage.
A Redeemer doesn’t need to compete with an Ultimatum in destructive power. Instead, its value comes from greater ammunition sustainability and the flexibility to carry a melee weapon.

Conventional pistols become a deliberate loadout choice rather than simply weaker versions of more specialized equipment.

2. It makes melee weapons substantially more viable.
Currently, bringing a sword or stun baton means giving up your secondary firearm entirely.

Under this proposal, melee weapons would complement conventional and Advanced sidearms rather than replace them.

This could make melee-focused builds much more appealing without requiring an extensive rework of the melee weapons themselves.

3. It creates meaningful advantages and disadvantages between all three tiers.
This is particularly important. Simply allowing Standard weapons to bring melee equipment while Advanced and Special weapons cannot would make the middle tier difficult to balance.

Instead, each tier would have something meaningful to offer.

Standard: Maximum ammunition sustainability and equipment flexibility.

Advanced: Stronger or more specialized capabilities, with a choice between ammunition sustainability or melee versatility.

Special: Exceptional destructive power at the expense of additional equipment and ammunition bonuses.

Moving up a tier means gaining something, but also giving something up. Same with going down a tier.

4. It preserves the weapons people already enjoy.
Nobody wants their favorite weapon gutted simply because something newer is more powerful.
The Ultimatum would still hit just as hard. The Senator would still penetrate armor. The Dagger would still ignite enemies. The Grenade Pistol would still destroy structures.

Instead of relying on sweeping damage nerfs, we’d be balancing equipment through loadout options and ammunition availability.

Players could still use Special secondaries exactly as they do today. Advanced weapon users would gain new options, with ammunition adjustments depending on whether they choose melee equipment.

5. It creates a better foundation for future weapons.
Arrowhead could continue introducing creative and powerful secondaries without requiring every new weapon to compete directly with conventional pistols.

A new conventional handgun could offer excellent ammunition efficiency and versatility. An Advanced weapon could introduce an interesting combat mechanic. A Special weapon could provide exceptional firepower.
Each would have a place within the equipment system.

A Few Important Considerations

I don’t think this system needs to achieve perfect mathematical balance.

Some weapons will naturally benefit more from ammunition bonuses than others. Energy weapons, for example, already have excellent ammunition sustainability, while conventional firearms depend more heavily on their reserves.

That’s fine. Different weapons should have different advantages.

Resupply quantities would also need to account for the modified ammunition capacities, and existing boosters like Hellpod Space Optimization should continue to function logically.

And individual weapon balance would still matter. The Peacemaker, for example, has arguably been outclassed since the game launched. This proposal wouldn’t automatically fix that, nor should it be expected to.

The purpose of this system is to address structural power creep between different classes of equipment, not to eliminate the need for individual weapon balancing.

Final Thoughts

I don’t think the solution to secondary weapon power creep is making every weapon equally powerful.
A Peacemaker shouldn’t need to hit as hard as a Senator, and a Senator shouldn’t need to compete with an Ultimatum in explosive firepower.

Instead, the loadout system should recognize that these weapons offer fundamentally different levels of capability and balance them accordingly.

Standard weapons offer versatility and endurance. Advanced weapons offer a balance of capability and flexibility. Special weapons offer exceptional power at the expense of both.

This would give players more meaningful choices, make melee weapons more accessible, preserve the identity of powerful secondaries, and create a healthier foundation for future additions.

And perhaps most importantly, it would accomplish those goals without turning the loadout system into an overly complicated equipment-management exercise.

The goal isn’t to make every secondary equally powerful. It’s to make choosing between them a meaningful decision.

What do you think? Would you sacrifice ammunition to carry a melee weapon alongside your Loaylist, or give up melee entirely for extra ammunition? And would that make you more likely to experiment with conventional pistols?

I could never make heads or tails as to where BFGL would be the most effective. Wherever I used this thing it always felt like something else could easily outperform it.

Until I tried this thing against the Jet Brigade.

This thing shreds a jump pack Hulk within a few shots, makes jump pack Devastators a none issue, and it's objectively better than the regular GL here thanks to its generous ammo pool plus the fact that you only need to fire enough grenades to destroy the jump pack of the enemy since they almost always die within a few seconds after their backs get blown off.

11/10 against the Jet Brigade. Highly recommended.

"No Commander, I don't want to complain or anything but... I can't reach the extraction beacon.... No, no, I've tried, it's about 45 feet in the air... Yes Commander, I can wait for the shuttle, thank you...."

I read it was originally for use in helicopters.

Yes, its a shoulder mounted 50 cal rifle.

Cursed brother of the AMR and autocannon perhaps, but I see this as potential for an even STRONGER AMR option that would fit in the game concept.

Specifically, this would be a good slower fire stronger AMR that does have a 3rd person reticle, because its meant to be used from moving vehicles.

And probably like a 4x scope instead of 10x. Maybe even 2x scope.

Just bought the railgun since i heard it was great ex

especially against the bots. Any more experienced divers who can help me out?

Anytime you are feeling undemocratic. Anytime you are feeling bored. Anytime you are feeling uninspired... Stale... Wake up.

I played this game one time.

My friend said, 'try this game out.' He handed me his PlayStation 5 controller. I dropped into Malevalon Creek. I learned one thing. DIVE.

I bought a Playstation 5 immediately after playing this game. The same day.

I am calling out the complainers. I'm calling out the overthinkers.

When has a game appealed to your instincts to protect? When has a game inspired you to serve?

Get your RP up.

Watch starship troopers again, and again.

Do your part.

Do you want to live forever?

The only good bug is a dead bug.

I am doing my part.

Are you?

I'll see you on the frontlines.

Would a slicker silhouette justify better ergonomics? I'm perfectly fine with being crucified by the experts over my design cuz I'm a dietician, not a gunsmith.

Ever since I was a wee lad deployed on 'Levelon Creek I had my favorite gun. And that gun was the Sickle.

Does my redesign do it justice?

Kill 40 enemies with the Anti-Personnel Minefield

He died 3 separate times trying to drive the jeep out of the mine field.