Gamer-weary Helldivers 2 boss says “we did” fix the railgun, and it was always meant to be “like a sniper rifle on crack” that can also kill you

Helldivers 2 game director Johan Pilestedt is pushing back against complaints about the most recent balance patch, specifically as it relates to the RS-422 railgun.

For some context, the railgun has been one of the best Helldivers 2 weapons for taking down armored enemies, particularly the dreaded Chargers, because it penetrates their armor and also happens to be very effective at killing. However, the latest update nerfed the railgun so that it can’t penetrate heavy armor when in Safe mode, which protects the user from overcharging the weapon and blowing themselves up. Unsafe mode can still blast right through armor, but it brings with it that lethal risk. Both in Safe and Unsafe modes, the railgun’s damage against durable enemy parts has been decreased.

In response to a fan demanding the railgun be “fixed,” Pilestedt said simply, “We did,” adding a ‘melting face’ emoji and following up with this clarification:

“But 4 real though, the rail gun in unsafe mode didn’t change the capabilities of it as it should. The [armor penetration] of it was insanely tweaked and now goes from good to goat. Like it was always intended to be – a risk/reward weapon for high tier play. Like a sniper rifle on crack but with the risk of killing the user.”

Now, the phrasing of this tweet could stand to be a little more specific, as it’s easy to misinterpret it as saying armor penetration was buffed, when that’s the opposite of what happened. According to Pilestedt, you need to crank the gun’s charge up to “the limit” before it explodes to achieve max armor penetration, which according to anecdotal reports from players, still isn’t quite as effective as pre-nerf.

With that in mind, it’s a good thing Helldivers 2’s annoying armored enemies are getting nerfed as Arrowhead looks to tone down “spawn rates and health pools”.