Today's Helldivers 2 update should make spreading Manged Democracy easier(Image: Arrowhead Game Studios)

Helldivers 2 update fixes 'broken' Raise the Flag objective while ragdolling fine-tuning continues

Arrowhead has slipped out another Helldivers 2 update today that finally addresses the 'impossible' Raise the Flag missions, making the quest to spread democracy a little bit easier.

by · The Mirror

Arrowhead is once again deploying Helldivers 2 updates at a rate of knots with another surprise patch today just a week after the last one dropped.

Spreading Managed Democracy has been a bumpy road as of late, which today's Helldivers 2 update should smooth right over. We hope. With the Escalation of Freedom update behind us and the patches from the 60-day roadmap concluded, normal service has resumed, and so far that's been a Helldivers 2 update every week. Last week saw patch 01.001.201 roll out which buffed the Shield Generator and fixed the Punisher Plasma, as well as a host of other changes and fixes.

And now, a week later, we've got another Helldivers 2 update, with the developer seemingly falling into its old patch schedule that saw them deployed on Tuesdays around 10am GMT / 5am EDT / 2am PDT. Today's update 1.001.202 has been dubbed a "small update' but it's going to have a big impact on Helldivers struggling with the Raise the Flag missions, with complaints about how hard it is to bring Managed Democracy to the galaxy's denizens littered all over Reddit.

The crux of the issue with Raise the Flag objectives were the enemy spawn rates and difficulty, which Arrowhead has targeted in today's patch. So hopefully dispatching Managed Democracy across the galaxy will be smooth sailing now. The wording of the patch notes differs slighlty between the Steam post and the Discord post, but in the latter, the dev says it's fixed "Raise Flag objective difficulty" so we can go ahead and assume you don't suck at the game – it was just a bug.

The dev has also added a note saying it's "testing" some other changes, with some of those tweaks tied to ragdolling; things like using stims while flailing helplessly through the air, remaining prone after ragdolling (when there's no movement input), being considered prone when ragdolling on the ground, and "addressing situations where explosions ragdoll players from behind cover." Whether we'll see another patch next week, or later this month, we don't know – Arrowhead hasn't shared the details just yet.

In the meantime, here's everything included in today's Helldivers 2 update.

Helldivers 2 update 1.001.202 – patch notes

Overview

  • Crash fixes
  • Raise Flag objective difficulty fix
  • Miscellaneous fixes

Fixes

Crash fixes & Soft Locks

  • Fixes a crash which could happen when the player or a hot-joiner first spawns into a mission
  • Fixed a rare crash that could occur with carriable items and looking at the minimap at the same time

Missions

  • Decreased enemy spawn rate while progressing the Raise Flag objective in Spread Democracy missions.

Miscellaneous fixes

  • Fix holding last stratagem input preventing movement on default pc controls.
  • SOS beacons will now look for additional players for the remainder of each mission. They are no longer destroyed when the squad is full. Instead they will deactivate - until someone leaves and the SOS beacon starts looking for additional players again. The SOS beacons will still be destroyed on host migration - this is to allow the new host to decide if they want a new SOS beacon or not.
  • Fixes an issue where the SOS beacons could not be deployed in the same or subsequent missions under some circumstances.
  • Fixed an issue where deploying an SOS beacon could result in your lobby not being made public and couldn't be joined by other players. The intended design is that deploying an SOS beacon makes your lobby public for the duration of the mission.
  • Fixed bug where non-public lobbies could not be joined, despite the host deploying an SOS beacon. The intended design is that deploying an SOS beacon makes your lobby public for the duration of the mission.
  • Fixed the drop wheel, emote wheel and comms wheel snapping the cursor to the outer edges in the radial menus when using a mouse and keyboard.
  • Resolved an issue where users with a large number of in-game friends couldn't see some of their friends' in-game status properly, preventing them from being able to invite or join.
  • Fixed issue where player names could be absent after returning to ship from a mission.
  • Fixed player names and chat text disappearing.

Known Issues

Top Priority

  • Excessive ragdolling can cause a feeling of helplessness and frustration.

Note: We recognize that changes in this area could have a significant impact on the player experience, both positively and negatively, so we are moving forward cautiously. While we are more certain about some changes, others require further thought. These are the adjustments we are currently testing:

  • Allowing players to remain prone after ragdolling when there’s no directional movement input.
  • Enabling the use of stims while ragdolling.
  • Addressing situations where explosions ragdoll players from behind cover.
  • Further adjustments to enemy behavior and projectiles.
  • Being considered prone when ragdolling on the ground.
  • Players are unable to emote when flying through the air.
  • Stratagem balls bounce unpredictably off cliffs and some spots.
  • The Reinforced Scout Strider does not telegraph it’s rocket attacks.
  • We are investigating how we can further improve the play experience against this enemy.

Medium Priority

  • Firebomb Hellpods can no longer destroy larger enemy types such as tanks
  • Players are unable to shoot properly while in the air using a jetpack
  • Reinforcement may not be available for players who join a game in progress
  • Players can get stuck on Pelican-1’s ramp during extraction
  • High damage weapons will not detonate Hellbombs already present on the map
  • Players using the Microsoft IME languages are unable to type Korean, Japanese and Chinese language characters in chat
  • Weapons with a Charge-up mechanic can exhibit unintended behavior when firing faster than the RPM (Rounds Per Minute) limit

And that's everything in the Helldivers 2 update today! The ragdolling changes sound interesting so we'll be keeping an eye on the game's Discord server for more updates on that.