You should definitely avoid a certain loadout in Helldivers 2 at the moment, because the most recent patch introduced a deadly bug into the game.
On April 29, 2024, patch 1,000,300 was released in Helldivers 2 and brought some changes to weapon balancing. One change that is probably not intended by the developers concerns the SG-8P Plasma Punishers. With this you can now shoot yourself in the face – whether you want to or not.
What combination do you use to shoot each other in the face? Since the recent patch, you’ll shoot yourself in the face with the Plasma Punisher if you use it while you have the Sh-32 Shield Generator Backpack equipped. This creates a yellow shield around your Helldiver that protects you from enemy attacks.
Normally you can shoot through this shield without any problem, but now if you shoot with the Plasma Punisher while the Shield Generator Backpack’s shield is active, the plasma projectile fired will reflect off the shield and hit your Helldiver.
Normally you should survive a shot at your shield with the Plasma Punisher – assuming you haven’t already lost life points. However, two shots in a row will send your Helldiver into the afterlife. You should therefore avoid the combination at the moment.
You can see what the whole thing looks like in practice in a video on Reddit:
Bug renders a strong combination useless
Is this error even relevant? Yes! The Plasma Punisher is a modification of the normal Punisher (a shotgun), which shoots plasma projectiles instead of shotgun ammunition and is particularly strong against robots. This also earned her an S-Tier rank in our Best Weapons Tier List.
The shield generator backpack, for its part, has an S-tier rank in our tier list of the best equipment and is also useful against robots. The yellow shield on the backpack can definitely save your life if everything blows up in your face in the galactic war.
The combination of plasma punisher and shield generator backpack is a good choice if you go into battle against robots – just not at the moment. And that despite the fact that it even received a buff with the most recent update.
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Some players on Reddit are already wondering what could have caused the bug. One guess is that it’s related to a change that reflects your bullets when shooting at armored enemies. For example, if you don’t aim at the head of a devastator, but rather shoot him in the upper body, the bullet will ricochet and hit your Helldiver.
Despite the bug, there are players who believe that Plasma Punisher could now be the big winner of the patch. Maybe she’ll soon be part of Helldivers 2’s best loadout.