There’s no mission too great or too challenging for a squad of Helldivers, but one mission type in particular was so frustrating and difficult that the Helldivers 2 devs finally had to address it in the latest patch.
In patch 01.000.200, what’s easily the game’s biggest update to date, a huge list of balancing changes included much-needed relief for the “Retrieve Essential Personnel” missions. These missions, also known commonly as Escort missions, have notoriously been the most difficult mission type regardless of difficulty level.
The primary change made to these missions in the latest patch deals with what’s considered the most frustrating aspect: how quickly new waves of enemies descend upon you and the essential personnel you’re trying to extract. Starting in patch 01.000.200, the enemy spawn points have been moved further away “to give players a fairer chance of defending the location.”
Prior to this change, numerous players were exacerbated by wave after wave of enemy bugs or bots descending without relief on the NPCs they were trying to extract. Because of how soon enemies were arriving to the scene, it effectively neutralized the usefulness of items like sentry turrets, since they were doing as much damage to the civilians being escorted as they were doing to the enemies.
Aside from this significant change, the number of required civilians needing to be rescued to complete the mission on higher difficulties has been reduced. Between these two changes, completing Escort missions on Hard or higher difficulty should still feel challenging but should no longer feel impossible.
Many of the overall balancing changes to modifiers and enemies should make life a little easier on the average Helldiver. Negative operation modifiers that increase stratagem cooldowns or call-in times have been reduced by half. Spewers deal less spew damage. Heavy and medium armor provides more protection from damage.
Patch 01.000.200 is live now. May Liberty guide your path.
