Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead has revealed the sport’s subsequent Premium Warbond, dubbed Viper Commandos and due out June 13.
In a publish on the PlayStation Blog, Katherine Baskin, social media and neighborhood supervisor at Arrowhead, stated the studio had responded to suggestions on Helldivers 2’s Warbonds and had modified its method because of this. For a begin, Arrowhead has slowed down the tempo at which it releases Warbonds “to give us a bit bit extra time to polish these designs earlier than they’re launched.” Baskin continued: “We don’t need to rush something out of the oven earlier than it’s absolutely baked.”
Arrowhead has additionally modified the association of things in every Warbond to make room for brand spanking new merchandise varieties in addition to increased high quality armor and weapons. “It will stop us from merely including extra of every thing, which may lead to weapons that really feel redundant and uninteresting armor,” Baskin defined. “It’s time to give attention to high quality over amount.”
“After we began researching objects for Viper Commandos, we needed to be certain we answered our participant requires stronger theming that coordinates throughout all of the objects, extra emotes, distinctive armor passives, and extra considerate designs moderately than merely giving extra of the identical.”
The sport’s neighborhood had referred to as on the developer to decelerate when it got here to vital stability adjustments in addition to Warbond releases, feeling Arrowhead had typically gone too far with nerfs and failed to embrace meta-affecting weapons and kit within the Warbonds.
To that finish, Viper Commandos revolves round an up shut and private playstyle, which for any present Helldivers 2 participant might sound a bit horrifying. The brand new major is a brand new model of the Liberator referred to as the AR-23A Liberator Carbine. It has a modified, shortened form-factor that handles in a different way from the unique, with a bit increased recoil, however sooner dealing with designed for spraying and praying up shut.
There’s additionally the brand new SG-22 Bushwhacker triple-barrel, sawed-off shotgun with two completely different firing modes, together with one which fires all three barrels without delay. This shotgun is the primary in Helldivers 2 to be classed as a secondary weapon, which ought to open up the loadout meta a bit.
There are two new armor objects, each of which function the Peak Physique passive, which improves melee harm and weapon dealing with. They each additionally function naked arms, so you possibly can actually exhibit your weapons.
One other first for the sport is new skins in your hellpods, Exosuits, and Pelican-1, “impressed by the traditional woodland and tiger stripe camouflage patterns.”
The brand new utility merchandise is the throwing knife. “Think about mowing down a crowd of Terminids and working out of ammo with just one bug remaining, no time to reload, so that you dive backward and throw a looking knife into its carapace proper earlier than it descends on you,” Baskin stated, hyping it up.
There’s additionally a brand new booster referred to as Experimental Infusion, which provides your stims the added bonus of boosting your motion velocity and decreasing the harm you are taking for a short while. And, as you’d count on, there are new capes, participant playing cards, and emotes.
As with earlier Premium Warbonds, count on Viper Commandos to value 1,000 Tremendous Credit. Whilst you can earn Tremendous Credit from gameplay and the Warbond itself, you may as well purchase them for real-world cash. By way of the in-game store, 1,000 Tremendous Credit prices $9.99. Premium Warbonds don’t expire, so you possibly can work your means via them at your individual tempo secure within the information their objects will stay accessible.
The announcement of Viper Commandos comes as many throughout the Helldivers 2 neighborhood speculate that Arrowhead is ready to add a 3rd enemy faction to the sport. The suggestion is the Illuminate are set to enter the galaxy-wide struggle, including a brand new entrance to the battle towards the Terminids and Automatons.
Final month, Arrowhead revealed it’s within the technique of setting the studio up so it might “make extra and higher stuff” within the long-term. In an introductory post on reddit, CEO Shams Jorjani, who lately changed earlier Arrowhead CEO and present Chief Inventive Officer Johan Pilestedt, stated the studio has had to alter to the big success Helldivers 2 has introduced to the corporate.
PlayStation 5 and PC co-op shooter Helldivers 2 is the fastest-selling PlayStation recreation of all time, having shifted an unimaginable 12 million copies in simply 12 weeks since occurring sale earlier this yr. Amid the large income Helldivers 2 has generated, Arrowhead itself has suffered quite a lot of crises, together with launch server issues and, most lately, a battle with Sony itself over the console maker’s controversial try to drive Steam gamers to account hyperlink to PlayStation Community.
Wesley is the UK Information Editor for IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You may attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.