Arrowhead’s post-launch support for Helldivers 2 has been nothing short of commendable. Alongside massive campaign updates with the arrival of The Illuminate and the ongoing Into the Unjust storyline, Arrowhead has also released over 20 Warbonds with new weapons, armour, and more.
All of this is fantastic. Combined with the fact that Helldivers 2 boasts about the ability to earn its in-game currency just by playing, and you’re theoretically able to unlock a new Warbond every month without spending any more than the game’s entry fee. If you have literally nothing else to do with your life.
Arrowhead’s frequent release of new Warbonds is fantastic, no one is denying that, but as Helldivers 2 continues to inflate with content, it’s becoming harder and harder to unlock it all without diving into your wallet. Farming Super Credits is possible, but it’s an incredibly monotonous task with some able to get the full 1,000 SC needed to unlock a new Warbond in anywhere from 20 hours to 46 hours depending on skill, RNG, and whether or not you have friends to play with. If you’re gunning for one of the game’s two crossovers—Halo 3 ODST and Killzone—then you’re spending even more time grinding.
The reality is that farming Super Credits isn’t just inefficient, it’s boring, and trying to grab the required amount of premium currency every month to unlock new weapons turns Helldivers 2 away from the silly, stupid, bombastic Starship Troopers clone it’s supposed to be into a dreadfully dull run-and-gun through environments to find credits before heading straight to extraction. The issue isn’t solved by the fact that Super Credits are farmable items, it’s that farming them is boring, and unless you devote yourself to Helldivers and Helldivers only, it’s often not enough. (I’m not going to dedicate a weekend of my short existence to the worst way to possibly play a game I enjoy.)
Combined with the fact that even the game’s earliest Warbonds have never seem a discount, and it’s easy to feel like you’re falling behind your peers if you aren’t spending your free time grinding. I’ve skipped a number of Warbonds in the past to instead pick up newer, shinier ones, and there’s little reason to fill the gap when they’re still priced the same two years after launch.
With this in mind, it’s time to make Super Credits easier to acquire and/or reduce the cost for older Warbonds as new options continue to be introduced. Recently, Helldivers 2 made a great new change to its Major Orders system, making it so that only players who log in during the campaign get access to its rewards.
While Arrowhead hasn’t specifically stated the intent behind this change, it seems like the change is geared towards increasing participation during Major Orders. Players will no longer be able to open the game after a Major Order to grab the rewards, but maybe it’s also time to offer some additional incentives. Or just one: Super Credits.
If a large-scale Major Order rewarded participants with Super Credits, it would not only help to remedy the constant grind to unlock new content, but it would also increase participation. Not only would you be earning the medals you need to unlock pages in a Warbond, but also the Warbond itself. At this point, every little bit towards progressing in the game is an added bonus.
The issue is that Warbonds are progression in Helldivers 2, and the glacial pace of earning them often makes it feel like you aren’t progressing without spending. While Arrowhead has promised “meaningful progression” is coming in a future update to the multiplayer game, that could be years away, and the progression there is (come on, weapon levels do not really feel like progression with how basic the unlocks are) feels almost pay-to-win. After all, some of these weapons are considerably more powerful than others.
Of course, there is an issue with discounting older Warbonds or even increasing how many Super Credits players can earn, players who have already invested may feel cheated. But when picking up every Warbond in the game—which you would want to do to increase the variety of the Helldivers 2 sandbox—then you’re currentlylooking at spending hundreds of dollars/pounds/your regional equivalent to play all of the content on offer.
Helldivers 2’s next Warbond, Exo Experts, launches later this month with two new Exosuit mechs, new armours, and marks the game’s 23rdWarbond so far. With more on the way, it’s becoming increasingly harder for players both new and old to find the time to unlock the well-made content on offer, and it really shouldn’t be.
