Arrowhead Game Studios has announced the next major campaign for Helldivers 2 – Uncover the Truth. Arriving on March 20th, 2026, the new update will bring brand-new Illuminate foes to the multiplayer co-op game.
As part of the ongoing Into the Unjust campaign, the new Uncover the Truth push brings the focus away from bugs and bots and back onto the terrifying Illuminate. As we battle fleets of alien scum to protect Super Earth, we’ll also uncover more about our deadly anti-democratic foes.
A new mystery erupts from the darkest corners of our galaxy – SHOCKING developments threaten the safety of Super Earth,” the update’s synopsis reads. “MYSTERIOUS creatures stalk the shadows as STRANGE technology awakens, endangering managed democracy itself.”
With the new update, you’ll not only be fighting against terrifying new foes, such as the close-quarters VERACITOR and the new sub-faction of lluminate Appropriators, but you’ll also have to deal with deadly Xenostorms that decimate innocent planets.
For the FULL patch notes for Friday’s update, check out everything below:
New enemies
- Illuminate Piloted Constructs
- VERACITOR: capable of fighting at close quarters.
- GATEKEEPER: engages targets at ranged distance.
- OBTRUDER: inserts itself where it is not wanted.
- A new variant of the Watcher:New Sub-Faction: Illuminate Appropriators
Introducing the Illuminate Fleets
- The Mindless Masses are set on taking over swaths of territory, with fewer Illuminates units deploying vast hordes of voteless and fleshmobs. The Appropriators field only Illuminate units, supported by a variety of constructs—piloted and otherwise.
Illuminate Exostorms
Planets in Illuminate space have been sieged by powerful Illuminate Exostorms, with high-intensity wind and lightning strikes.
- Planets experiencing Exostorms will be visible on the Galactic Map, but the danger will ramp up when you dive to the planet’s surface.The strength of the storms can vary, with higher class storms presenting greater risk.
New Mission – Destroy Exospire
The powerful storms seem to originate from Illuminate technology in the form of Exospires. Work with your squad to destroy the Exospires and clear the storm looming over the region.
- Sub-objective: The Exospire is protected by a force shield. The squad will first have to locate the access nodes that connect to the subterranean shield generators, and overload them with an electrical surge of liberating force.
- Primary Objective: Once the force shield has been deactivated, the squad will enter the Exospire’s chamber and destroy its core by eliminating the Dark Fluid cells that maintain it.
Balancing
General changes overview
Flamethowers
- Some enemies now think its very inconvenient to be flamed in the face.
- Smaller to medium sized enemies will in general be slower while getting flamed with a flamethrower.
- Small to medium automatons, small to large terminids and small to medium illuminates will be confused and panic when getting flamed in the face. which leads to them attacking randomly
Primary weapons
AR/GL-21 One-Two
- Moved the underbarrel weapon function from down to left
Sidearms
PLAS-15 Loyalist
- Increased magazine capacity from 7 to 8Shorter charger-up time on full charge up from 1 sec to 0.75 sec
P-11 Stim Pistol
- Increase Heal effect with 100%Increase Muzzle velocity from 200 to 300
Stratagems
Resupply
- You can now climb it again! But the autoclimb will not climb it. It’s literally the best of both worlds!
GL-21 Grenade Launcher
- Reverted the change made in the previous patch – the launcher has medium armor penetration again
CQC-1 One True Flag
- Moved and increased the size of the melee abilityThe One True Flag is DESPISED by the enemies of Democracy. They will attempt to target anyone waving it
CQC-20 Breaching Hammer
- Increased damage from 2100 to 2200
M-1000 Maxigun
- Increased ammo capacity from 750 to 1000
LAS-98 Laser Cannon
- Increased beam length from 200m to 1000m
GL-28 Belt-Fed Grenade Launcher
- Increased ammo from 100 to 120.
GL-52 De-Escalator
- Faster reloadFull reload around 2 second faster from around 7.5 to 5.5 secOne reload around 1 sec faster from around 3.5 to 2.5 sec
AC-8 Autocannon
- Faster reloadFull reload around 1 second faster from around 5.5 sec to 4.5 secHalf reload around 0.5 sec faster from around 2.3 sec → 1.8 sec
B/MD C4 Pack
- Moved the switch from weapon function from right to left
Exosuits Step damage zone
- Made the damage zone closer to the size of the legs.Helldivers and enemies were killed when not in close proximity. This effects EXO-45 Patriot Exosuit and EXO-49 Emancipator Exosuit
Enemies
General
- Small to medium automatons, small to large terminids, and small to medium illuminates will be confused and panic when getting flamed in the face, which leads them to randomly attack anyone in their vicinity
Fixes
Crash Fixes
- Fixed a crash that would occur during the Hellpod drop
- Fixed a rare crash that occurred when a grenade entered a Vox Engines weakpointFixed a rare crash caused by Cyborgs taking cover
Weapons & Stratagem Fixes
- Fixed an issue where the Cyborg Agitator and Radicals armor did not break properly when attacked by laser weaponry
- Fixed stratagems bouncing on fuel depots in factory cities
- Fixed B-1 Supply Pack being usable by Helldivers that are already full on ammo on Xbox
- Orbital lasers will no longer target enemies in caves
- Helldivers will now start with 4 Arc Grenades instead of 3
- Fixed an issue where the G-50 seeker grenade would not deal damage
- Fixed “low ammo” and other notifications showing on weapons with infinite ammo
- Stats for melee weapons are now more accurate. Showing damage, weapon attack speed and stamina drain per attack
- Fixed a glitch that would let a player take multiples of the same stratagem
Enemies
- Fixed an issue where Brood Commanders would not summon reinforcements when detecting a client player
- Overseers will now stagger when their armour and shields are destroyed
- Enemies will now be alerted to the sound of the CQC-20 Breaching Hammer exploding
- The unarmored limbs attached to the Hiveguard’s protective front legs now have lower armor
- Fixed an issue where surge modifiers spawned more enemies than intended
- Vox engine changes:
- Reduced spawn rateReduced upper body turn rateIncreased the spread of main cannon shotsMG turrets on the side will now die instantly when the Vox Engine diesVox Engine now tries to avoid shooting targets with its main cannons on targets that are too close
- Fixed an issue where enemies could walk through the Vox Engines tracks to attack the player
- Fixed a bug that would cause Bastion Tanks to be launched into the upper atmosphere when running over cars on colonies.
- Fixed an issue where scout walkers with rockets would not die when those rockets were shot, stealth divers rejoice
- Fixed a bug where Levers on Cyborg Assembly unit would not work if you were killed/ragdolled while interacting with them
Miscellaneous Fixes
- Sending an invite via the social menu on PS5 will now also send a system invite
- Fixed an issue where login error messages would go out of bounds, making them difficult to read
- Fixed red lighting occurring on the super destroyer after leaving a Magma planet/Cyberstan
- Fixed a minor issue where UI would go out of bounds when dying with 3 types of Samples
- Removed the redundant “Compare” option when equipping stratagems
- Fixed an issue where foliage that slowed a Helldiver would also slow projectiles passing through them
- Added the correct “Stun” and “Arc” tags to items that were missing the tags from their descriptions
- Purge Illuminate mission has been renamed to Eliminate Overseers to be more accurate
- Helldivers can now melee while falling or using the LIFT-850 Jump Pack
- Fixed weapons with stationary reload being reloadable while using LIFT-850 Jump Pack
- Illuminate Overships can now only be destroyed by the Planetary Defence Cannon
