Arrowhead focus on fixing up all the issues with HELLDIVERS 2 getting a big bug-squashing patch

HELLDIVERS 2 remains as one of the best co-op action games around, but it has long be plagued with the kind of bugs you don't want to see.

The developers are fully aware of all the technical issues, and they did recently talk about the state of the game in post in late September. Today, the Into the Unjust: 4.1.0 update landed and along with a whole bunch of general balancing changes to make it a bit more fun, there's a lot of bug fixing and optimization going on. Arrowhead devs said they've "overhauled how we approach patching to better target the pain points you’ve shared with us" which means "more focus on stability, balance, and the issues that affect your experience the most".

New features are still planned but this patch "marks a big step forward: both in the game itself and in how we work to improve it" and more is on the way. All the fixes and optimizations are listed below, but there's a lot more changes:

Fixes

Stratagems

• Fixed an issue where Helldivers were unable to call down stratagems in the objective area of the "Nuke Nursery" cave mission
• Fixed an issue with the B-100 Portable Hellbomb stratagem sometimes falling on Cave roofs in the "Destroy Spore Lung" mission
• Fixed an issue with the drill objective stratagem sometimes landing in unintended places such as on top of caves, in Nuke Nursery Hive World missions
• Players can now stay aiming down sights when activating the LIFT-860 Hover Pack

Crashes

• Fixed a rare crash occurring when fighting Illuminates
• Fixed a crash when hotjoining and readying up before other hotjoiners
• Fixed a crash occurring when a player would re-join multiple times
• Fixed a rare crash caused by Eagle-1
• Fixed a rare bug where the Eagle-1 would never be removed from the game session and eventually cause crashes
• Fixed rare crash bug that could happen when spawning in groups of enemies
• Fixed crash affecting Helldivers trying to lean out from a vehicle
• Fixed a crash that could happen when scrolling through the weapon customization menu
• Fixed a crash that could happen during game shutdown

Weapons

• Fixed armor penetration values in the Stats Menu for CQC-5 Combat Hatchet, CQC-30 Stun Baton,CQC-19 Stun Lance, CQC-2 Saber, CQC-1 One True Flag and the G-7 Pineapple grenade; the armor penetration value displayed as Medium instead of Light
• Improved initial bullet alignment while strafing and riding in vehicles
• Moved the first person camera further away from the MS-11 Solo Silo's Target Designator scope
• Fixed the weapon reload animations desyncing when wielding armor passives that give increased reload speed
• The FAF-14 Spear can now lock onto Automaton AA turrets
• Fixed projectiles hitting direct center of sights when extremely close to objects
• Haptics feedback is now present throughout the firing of the FLAM-40 Flamethrower stratagem

Miscellaneous

• Fixed a bug where Hive Lord body parts would not spawn properly
• Fixed an instance where the Helldiver couldn't re-join their previous host, if said host left a joined game in progress from the loadout
• Fixed a bug where the LIFT-182 Warp Pack would sometimes get stuck suspended in the air or crash
• Fixed Adreno-Defibrillator armor passive animation bug
• Fixed disconnection issues when joining a solo player with 3 cross-platform players
• Fixed mesh clipping for the arms on some animations
• Reduced the chance of the Extraction Shuttle clipping through terrain
• Fixed a flickering bug on the avatar when the Helldiver gets affected by mud or snow
• Fixed a bug hole covered by terrain in one of the CR10 Mega Nests
• Rupture Warriors can no longer destroy deployable turrets while still underground
• Fixed an issue where the front door of the GATER could become inaccessible
• Fixed a rare issue where the player could be disconnected when they are a part of a mixed platform, 3 person lobby that joins a solo player under poor network conditions
• Fixed an issue with Illuminate dropships not taking correct damage during the “Repel Invasion Fleet” missions
• The currency symbol for Saudi riyal is now displayed correctly in the in game shop
• The Oil Rigs reverse audio will no longer continuously play if the player attempts to reverse during oil extraction
• Fixed Helldivers going through the floor in the tutorial mission, when diving near the barbed wires
• Fixed a rare soft-lock in tutorial
• Helldiver is now killed when driving into drill holes during Nuke Nursery missions
• Fixed an issue where Helldivers could enter a vehicle even though the seat got claimed by someone else first
• Fixed controller vibrations behaving incorrectly when connecting or disconnecting controllers on PC
• Fixed miscellaneous threading issues in the audio system
• Fixed minor texture clipping issues on the floor between hellpod launchers on the ship
• Fixed an issue where voice chat could sometimes change volume unexpectedly - particularly when entering caves

Optimizations

• Optimized status effects
• Optimized physics by only enabling powered ragdolls when needed
• Optimized physics body handling for damage calculations
• Optimized Automaton units and NPC eyes, by changing them from particle effects to shaders
• Optimized AI behaviors by analyzing and stripping out redundant code
• Reduced stuttering during drop-in sequence for missions on Hive Worlds
• Improved audio IO performance
• Snow distribution and overall look has been reworked
• Improved performance by tweaking LOD settings for characters
• Optimized asset distribution for several planets types
• Optimized scattered assets such as grass on various planet types
• Optimized asset distribution in Hiveworlds and Terminid caves
• Optimized asset setup and geometry for assets used in Hiveworlds and Terminid caves
• Optimized status effect physics and particle systems while maintaining visual feedback and fidelity
• Optimized various Automaton explosion VFX
• Optimized Acid Rain effects during Acid Storms
• Optimized Dragonroach fire attack VFX
• Made various optimizations to the fire system, including particle and light optimization.
• Improved performance by optimizing the rendering of several shaders

Really happy to see one of my favourite action games get the attention it needs. Hopefully this really is the start of more major technical improvements coming to it. Thankfully it's one game with anti-cheat that works well on Linux.