On page 8 of the Free War Bond in Helldivers 2, there is a modest gun called the SG-85 Slugger. The Slugger is a variant of the Punisher, a shotgun that I don't like. The Slugger is not a shotgun, but a shotgun-type rifle that can bring anything to life in seconds when the slug is fired. A slugger is a shotgun shaped rifle that can bring anything back to life in seconds.

So I wasn't surprised when the slugger got the biggest nerf in yesterday's Helldivers 2 patch. The Arrowhead hit a sore spot for a popular gun:

In response to feedback on the Helldivers Discord server, Senior Game Designer Alexus Kravchenko said that the changes to the Slugger are a shotgun that does not behave like a shotgun He stated that it comes down to the fact that it is a shotgun.

"The truth is that [the Slugger] was the best sniper rifle.

Indeed, the Slugger could not be equipped with a scope, but its high accuracy and low damage drop made it a better choice for precision shooters than, for example, the Diligence Counter Sniper Rifle, which was designed specifically for that role. But if the goal was to make the Slugger less of a long-range gun, why did the Arrowhead decide to lower overall damage instead of increasing the damage drop range? As long as the slugger still feels strong at its intended range (apparently short to medium range), the overall damage nerf would accomplish the same thing.

Some fans have pointed out to Kravchenko that it makes more sense to buff snipers to make them more slugger-like, rather than nerf them as too sniper-like; Arrowhead has asked in the past why "no nerf, only buff" is talked about why it is a bad design concept for PvE games, but in this case Arrowhead is doing both.

"We're also looking at sniper rifles. We buffed the [Diligence Counter-Sniper], Dominator, and [Anti-Materiel Rifle] in this patch. Sniper rifles should not match shotguns."

These sniper rifle changes point to two major buffs in yesterday's patch that increased the damage of AMR support weapons by a whopping 30% and upgraded the counter sniper's primary weapon to medium armor piercing. It's a lot more fun to use snipers.

As for the next balancing patch for Helldivers 2, if the current pattern continues, it will likely be a few weeks away: according to Kravchenko, he expects changes to Punisher Plasma.