Helldivers 2’s most recent patch brought a ton of balance changes and new mechanics to the game, but some have been poorly received. One such change was to ricochets, which now bounce off players instead of at an angle, with players calling for the developers to revert the change.
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A Reddit thread from April 29 showed off how the new ricochets work. The thread’s creator posted a video of them shooting the Spore Spewer mushroom, with the bullets immediately coming back to bite them in the head, killing them on the spot. The new ricochets were intended to help Automatons, as the update was aimed at beefing up several robotic enemies, particularly the Hulks, whose thick armor wasn’t as effective as the developers would have liked. Instead, the change introduced bugs and unintended interactions, such as players being unable to use the Punisher Plasma while equipped with a Shield Generator due to ricochet issues.
Players commenting on the thread largely agree that these ricochet changes should be rolled back. Whether intentional or not, the ricochet now seems to work much worse, aiming the shooter for a direct 180-degree bounce. Previously, bullets would ricochet off of thick armor at an angle, most likely hitting other enemies or your allies depending on who was in the way.
“I understand the ricochets, but it seems odd that they literally go 180 degrees off the armor and back at you, instead of bouncing at a realistic angle,” one player said. Another claimed that the only change in the patch was that shooters are no longer immune to their own ricochets, which may be the source of the issue. Still, the updated ricochets, with the bugged-out weapon interactions and Spore Spewers that can ricochet bullets with nothing more than sheer force of will, seem to be malfunctioning on at least some level.
