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The Chemical Agents Warbond has landed and Helldivers 2 players have had a few hours with the new gear. At least, those who had enough Medals to buy it, as the new Warbond is overall pricier in Medals than some others. With the rework to how gas works in preparation for its launch, everyone’s still gathering their thoughts and impressions on the bug spray Warbond.
Did Arrowhead cook with gas?
Preemptively, it’s still too early to tell, but the new Warbond has so far failed to impress most players, outside of the aesthetic appeal it brings. The new gear looks cool, the theme is on point, but the practicality is where it seems to fall apart. At best, the gas attack theme has a niche support application, thanks to the new “confuse” mechanic that replaced some of the damage nerf to gas weapons with the Caustic trait. The DoT effect can melt small bugs, but really seems to struggle against anything tougher than that.
The poster child of the Chemical Agents Warbond, the Steriliser variant of the flamethrower, provides the clearest example. As detailed in a great post by GallopingGepard, the practical use of this gas weapon feels more forced to make it work than substantive. Many players suggest pairing a gas spray with a flamer, which provides two stacks of DoTs that tick side by side. However, that just means that you have to use two weapons to do the job of one.
There also seems to be a bug (ha!) with the gas’ confusion effect, which doesn’t trigger for larger enemies once they’ve already set up a path towards you, such as a Charger’s barreling charge. Others have reported that it does work, but seemingly not all the time, so it’s likely a fixable issue.
Similarly, the new Advanced Filtration armor perk doesn’t seem to work against the poison damage dealt by spewing bugs and Bile Titans. This makes it even less effective than its already niche use suggested. Still, this armor lets you stay in your own gas clouds and deal with groups of confused melting enemies, but as pointed above, you’ll be in trouble when the big guys show up.
Players are looking to old staples
All in all, the Chemical Agents Warbond got a mixed reception from the community. On the one hand, it looks cool and the theme is great. But in practice, players are happier to keep trying out newly buffed weapons. The new Warbond will likely see some niche use, especially against bugs, but it’s highly doubtful that much of it will become the new meta. We have high hopes for the Dog Breath variant, as on paper, it should provide a nice passive way of applying the Caustic debuff to enemies, so you can deal with them at leisure. It’s a hands-off way that only occupies a Stratagem and backpack slot.
Otherwise, it seems that the fans don’t expect to see much use for other parts of this Warbond, save for memes and cosmetics. Will this make Arrowhead revise their stance on gas weapons and give them a buff in the future? Again, it’s too early to tell, but we wouldn’t be surprised if they did that.