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Helldivers 2 developers faced a lot of controversy lately. Fans aren’t thrilled with the release of a new patch and a new Warbond. Recently, some Helldivers 2 players questioned the devs at Arrowhead Studio whether weapon nerfs are based on testing on higher difficulty levels.
Fans Want to Confront the Developers Over Testing
Guilty-Agency-857 stated: “Devs [developers] testing weapons and Stratagems on difficulties 7-9 for both Terminids and Automatons would help them better understand the discourse surrounding the ‘nerfs’/counterintuitive gameplay mechanics”. As you probably know, there are 9 levels of difficulty in the game. Reportedly, most players choose to play on level 7 difficulty.
The previous statement comes not long after the infamous Community Manager, Evil-Bosse, took to Discord and answered some questions. A fan asked: “In what difficulty do the developers play to determine whether the weapon requires a buff or a nerf?”. Evil-Bosse replied: “Depends on occasion if I’m in a playtest session with HR reps, a level designer with a massive cold, and someone on a busy phone call. We will probably go quite low. When QA are playing together, they pretty much roll through all difficulties”.
Most players didn’t like this response. Some stated: “This explains a lot”. A Reddit user, heroofbacon said: “This is a common issue with smaller teams. QA is hard to come across and really expensive for what it is”. Waelder also came to the developers’ defense. They gave an insight into how they conduct the testing process.
This player disclosed: “There’s no proof that the devs don’t test in higher difficulties. I should also mention that it’s perfectly normal for game studios to organize playtests where all employees, no matter their role, participate. These are different tests than the ones done exclusively by QA developers.”
Which Difficulty is Best to Test On According to Fans
The fans might be divided over the topic of who should do the testing, but they stay united in their opinion that the balancing should be based on the level 7 difficulty. DariusRivers explained: “They should figure out which difficulty they want the majority of their player base to play at and balance around that. That should be 7 because that is the minimum difficulty required to unlock everything”.
Ovralyne agreed: “So long as core progression items are locked behind diff 7 [ level 7 difficulty] it really should be considered the absolute bare minimum. Every weapon, stratagem, armor, whatever – difficulty 7. If an item can’t prove its worth there, then it’s a fairly blatant admission that it’s underpowered”.
It makes sense. If the balance team uses a lower level to base their decisions on which weapons they will buff or nerf, higher-level difficulties will have a bad time. That said, we don’t know exactly what the testing process looks like. The developers haven’t shared a complete insight into how they make their decisions. The players have to be more patient. The balance team is working on adapting the overcorrected nerfs. Now, all we have to do is wait to see what they come up with.