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The K-2 Throwing Knives are among the most underwhelming weapons in Helldivers 2. Ever since their introduction in the Viper Commandos Warbond, these throwables haven’t been regarded as much more than a meme. While cool on paper, the throwing knives replace your grenades – making it harder to close nests – and don’t replace that sacrifice with any useful power. Sure, they’re supposed to be stealthy and used to pierce armour… but even those perks don’t really work as they should. Some players have been clamouring for a buff or a rework, so they can justify bringing them to their next dive.
Can the Throwing Knives be redeemed?
It’s tough to find a use for the throwing knives when their niche is firmly taken over by almost any grenade (except smoke, which is even more useless). Many players in the community have been proposing changes to make the knives useful over the months. The latest suggestion comes from Night_Knight_Light on Reddit, who would like to see some utility added to the weapon.
“Give them the ability to take out Reinforced Striders at the hip joint, or detonate their rockets, and my life is yours, Arrowhead. I’m incredibly biased, but in my opinion, the knives were at their best and most fun when they were capable of piercing Charger armor. Peak Helldivers for me was being entirely out of ammo and still taking down two Behemoth Chargers with nothing but 8 knives and a dream. On the other front, if I was solo, I could blitz through side objectives, or wipe out entire bot patrols one by one during storms, which added an entire new element to each mission and made them hella fun. Nowadays on diff 10, whilst still manageable, you’re almost actively choosing to handicap yourself to almost no benefit by running the knives instead of grenades.”
As expected, many players chimed in with their own wishlists for the knives. They’re popular, but largely overshadowed in their niche. Zegram_Ghart laments: “I’d love for them to just not alert nearby enemies at all. Is it silly? Sure. Is it schlocky and fun? Damn straight.” This has been a known bug for a while, as the knives were supposed to be entirely silent. The OP explains as much: “It’s an unfortunate bug, because they are supposed to be completely silent. For Bots, I should say. Terminid have like a 50/50 whether they’ll ignore all of them, or become omniscient to you in that moment.”
The knives are in an overcrowded category – so just change it
Another good suggestion comes from Defiant_Figure3937, who came out with a bold idea that we actually really like. They suggested that the knives should switch categories altogether, from throwables to secondary weapon: “Someone suggested Throwing Knives be a secondary, which made a lot more sense to me than having it compete against Grenades. Here’s the problem with throwing knives, unless you add a goofy amount of damage you have to increase their utility in order to compete with grenades or secondaries, either through ammo conservation with pickup or synergies like acting like a lightning rod. Also, adding a bleed effect would go a long way to making them more useful without making them do crazy upfront damage or niche synergies. To me, the perfect throwing knife would be a secondary with a melee primary attack, secondary throw, knife pickup, and a strong bleed effect for both (or a moderate one that stacks).”
No matter which way you look, the Throwing Knives need some love from the devs. As it stands, they’re a gimmick at best, and a detriment at worst. They don’t seem to slot properly into any build, including a dedicated stealth solo loadout. Hopefully, Arrowhead gives them another pass and considers some of the community ideas. What would you like to see changed to the maligned K-2 knives?