Helldivers 2 players who have switched to the western front this week to deal with the Automaton uprising are getting sick and tired of dealing with their character’s major weakness, fire—which the bots are more than capable of dishing out across the system.
Players flocked to support one Diver who sparked discussion on the game’s subreddit on April 13, calling the constant barrage of fire tornados and burning to death “ridiculous,” demanding Arrowhead devs make a fix. “It’s just silly and not fun,” the player said.
Weather conditions are a factor in Helldivers 2, with events like blizzards, tremors, and more causing havoc in the middle of a Helldive and boosting the difficulty of the encounter. One such event is the “Fire Tornado” barrage, which is as horrifying as it sounds. Spirals of flame touch down and spin off, chasing bugs, bots, and Divers alike and leaving burning trails behind. It’s this fire that players have had enough of.
One player said they dived into the Suicide difficulty for the first time, but despite selecting the heaviest possible armor, they lasted mere seconds when the fire took hold. “The most stupid thing is that fire just lay on the ground for [a] freaking century,” they added. Fire is even more annoying as it also restricts movement, meaning you can’t easily outrun a bot drop or a hive spawn.
Others don’t like the speed at which the fire takes hold. While you can extinguish yourself by diving, if you hesitate for one second too long, you’ll be fried alive and will need to redeploy. A player showed a clip where they were lit up by a Hulk: “You die from full health in under 150ms,” they said, adding they’ll be filing a bug report even though it appears to be intentional. Letting a Hulk get close enough to use the flamethrower is a bit of a blunder but yeah, instant death certainly isn’t fun.
One such solution Arrowhead could consider is an armor set designed around dealing with fire, perhaps reducing or even negating the fire damage altogether. I don’t mind dealing with the flames as it provides an added challenge, and should such armor be added, it should come with some drawbacks as it would all but negate the effects of some enemy units and planetary weather.
In the meantime, prep that dive button and avoid the fire as much as possible when playing Helldivers 2 next time.
