Using the same effect time and time again can get stale pretty quickly. A lot of Helldivers 2 expressed their dissatisfaction with the overuse of the slow debuff.
In Helldivers 2, you can get damaged by various things. You can get sliced, diced, and crushed from up close, or shot to death by lasers, rockets, and acid vomit. And let’s not forget being shot by your friends. But, apart from dealing damage, those enemy attacks rarely do anything else, other than occasionally slowing you. It seems there are no other notable debuffs besides slow. And on that note, you can also get slowed by lots of other things in the game. So much so that some players got very sick of getting slowed all the time.
Being Constantly Slowed is a Buzzkill and Ruins the Hellidivers 2 Experience
One Helldiver, named Perfect_Track_3647 on Reddit, raised this issue with the community, saying that everything slowing you down and inevitably killing you is quite irritating. “It feels like every little thing gives you a slow debuff and it’s AWFUL. The amount of times I’ve died because something hit me with a slow debuff and I had no way out is insane.” And he’s not far from the truth.
You can get slowed by a lot of things in Helldivers 2. Starting with terrain, you are slowed by snow and bushes, and we can forget those blue crystal-like flowers, that completely deplete your Stamina. Concerning enemies, anything that vomits acid at you will also slow you but those pesky Hunters are the main culprit. They apply slow in a one-two punch, by leaping at you from a distance, dealing tons of damage, and then applying a poison-like effect that slows you down. Most of the time, they simply finish you off after that, especially if there is more than one Hunter.
Helldivers 2 Community is Really Irritated By The Slow Debuff
Other players have chimed in, agreeing with the OP. Redditor alpacawrangler16 jokingly asked: “Wait, you don’t enjoy being slowed by the bug that just lept at you from 40 yards away that ALSO headshots you for 3/4 of your health and then kills you with its tongue follow-up?”
The main concerns were the inability to protect yourself from it, and also the clunky hitboxes, where you get slowed even though you obviously dodge the attack. Allegionaire added: “I feel like the worst part is getting slowed by bile bugs (of any kind) even though they clearly didn’t hit you. Absolutely infuriating to completely dodge an attack and still get struck with the debuff for some reason.”
An idea of the Armor Perk that reduces the slowing effect is great, especially with the latest Warbond’s Armor having absolutely no original Perks. You can mitigate some of the slowing by using the Muscle Enhancement Booster, but that will only get you so far. We hope that Arrowhead will add more different debuffs to the game, to add variety and reduce the amount of slows that are in the game.
For more on HD2, check out How to Fix Friend Request Not Working, How to Get and Use the FAF-14 Spear, and Best Grenades in Helldivers 2 Tier List.