It was perhaps inevitable: cheating has hit early 2024 blockbuster Helldivers 2.
Players have reported a variety of cheats and exploits for Arrowhead’s explosive co-op focused third-person shooter. Hacks are adding infinite ammo, increasing speed, and even allowing players to trigger ‘god mode’. A recent popular exploit triggers an infinite stratagem glitch, which causes even more chaos on the battlefield.
Some players have also ended up playing in a group with cheaters who are able to obtain hundreds of samples from missions. Samples are one of the key currencies in Helldivers 2 progression, with some only found on the harder difficulties. They’re used to buy ship module upgrades, which are powerful passive buffs that can significantly boost player effectiveness. Obtaining samples is a big part of the Helldivers 2 grind, and under normal circumstances it would take players a long time to unlock all the ship modules.
One player who ended up in a group with a cheater wondered whether their progress could be rolled back to before they played a match in which they obtained a huge number of samples (obtained samples are shared among players within the group upon mission objective completion). This sample cheating appears to be on the rise, based on player reports across the Helldivers 2 community.
“Cheaters ruined my experience with the grind,” said redditor ForeverDesperate5855 in another post. “Seems kinda scummy but they can do whatever they want with their game and face the consequences, it's just a bit upsetting that I also got those samples and ruined 80% the grind.”
Arrowhead will be keen to tackle the cheating issue given the way in which it is affecting some legitimate players who are unlucky enough to find themselves in a pick up group with a cheater. For now, the community is recommending those affected drop Arrowhead a line to ask for a rollback.
It’s a busy time for Arrowhead, of course. It has just declared the weekend a success, insisting Helldivers 2's servers handled all players “without problem”. Arrowhead is now ready to start thinking about improving the game in other, non-server trouble ways, saying it now has time to “resume our original plan." Meanwhile, Helldivers 2 players are debating the rights and wrongs of some kicking their teammates for not bringing ‘meta’ builds to the party.
Until then, the fight against the bugs and robots continues. If you’re playing, be sure to check out IGN’s comprehensive Helldivers 2 guide.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
