Helldivers 2 Escalation of Freedom update brings Super Helldives and Miyazaki’s favorite biome

Arrowhead details ‘biggest update yet’

Arrowhead / Sony

Developer Arrowhead has revealed the first details of the coming Helldivers 2 – Escalation of Freedom update, which it dubbed the co-op shooter’s “biggest update yet.” It’s scheduled for release on August 6, 2024, for PC and PS5.

Escalation of Freedom will introduce missions with Combat Rating 10, called Super Helldives. These operations will be more challenging – and rewarding – than anything players have seen.

In addition to an additional difficulty level, Arrowhead is expanding mission variety thanks to new objectives and bigger enemy bases. Both the Automatons and the Terminids will possess larger fortresses, which contain new reward types like Super Samples. These new objectives won’t be restricted to Super Helldivers either – players can encounter them on lower difficulty levels, too.

The update will bring more sprawling enemy bases. / Arrowhead / Sony

Arrowhead’s developers probably played too much Elden Ring in recent weeks, because there will be a brand-new biome type in the update: swamps. Foggy, damp, and downright creepy, a swamp is already a nasty place – and especially so when deadly enemies could use the limited visibility to sneak up on you.

Speaking of foes: There will be fresh types of Automatons and Terminds to kill. The bots have been confirmed to be reinforced by Rocket Tanks in addition to “other bot surprises we’ll be throwing your way.” The Terminids will add the massive Impalers to their swarm alongside the Spore Charger, a Charger variant that hides its exact position by surrounding itself with a thick fog. And then there’s immensely mean Alpha Commander, a beefed up version of the Brood Commander.

Oh no, it's Miyazaki's dream planet. / Arrowhead / Sony

Another highlight of the patch will be a system update to mitigate the problem of grief kicking: “While it’s our hope that players engage with the game in good faith and sportsmanship, we do recognize that some players are using the team kicking to grief others,” the developers explained. “To help improve this we have implemented a system where if a player is kicked, they will spawn into a new session as the host with all of the teams loot from their previous session. All items can now be picked up by the player before extraction. The squad doing the kicking will see a message in the chat widget that a player has been kicked, yet their loot remains unchanged.”

“With these changes, all players have the opportunity to leave with all loot collected on mission, with no one Helldiver losing out. We’re committed to making changes that will improve the player experience and encourage healthy, cooperative gameplay,” they concluded.