Helldivers 2’s new Warbond dramatically increases the chance to blow yourself up

Some of Helldivers 2’s best moments come through player failure, like when you accidentally shoot your teammate, get killed by a low-level Terminid grunt, or blow yourself up. The ragdoll physics make these mistakes all the more hilarious. And we expect these moments to increase thanks to a new Premium Warbond (the game’s version of the battle pass), which will be hitting on April 11.

According to the PlayStation Blog, the Warbond, called “Democratic Detonation,” features a bunch of new weapons to unlock with medals, including a new assault rifle. However, you might notice a theme: most of these new weapons make things explode. For example, there’s the new CB-9 Exploding Crossbow primary weapon that does exactly what it says on the tin. There’s also the new G-123 Thermite Grenade and the GP-31 Grenade Pistol, which are also pretty self-explanatory.

There is a lot of utility to these weapons — if you use them correctly. You have to throw grenades into bug holes to close them, for example, and the Grenade Pistol, which does, indeed, fire a grenade, can be a great sidearm to have during those missions. Imagine filling your grenade slots with incendiary or smoke grenades instead of having to rely on explosive options when you can just have a handy pistol instead. Meanwhile, the Thermite Grenade can stick to surfaces, which can be useful if you want a bit more flexibility in where you can throw grenades.

Also in the Warbond is a potentially super-helpful utility booster that can call down the extraction shuttle early at the beacon at the end of missions. The Warbond also features standard items we’ve come to expect in these packs, including new armor and capes.

However, as we’ve come to know, many arsenal additions in Helldivers 2 have a catch, and that’ll certainly be the case here. You can already see a few downsides in the blog, like how you have to reload the Grenade Pistol in between each shot, or how “gravity must be accounted for when aiming” the crossbow — whatever that is referring to. And, as we already mentioned, it’s super easy to blow yourself up with your own grenades. However, one of the new armor sets, the CE-07 Demolition Specialist, might help with that since it can “withstand rapid changes in pressure, heat, and personal velocity.”

This is the second Warbond the developers at Arrowhead Game Studios have added since launch, the first being the Cutting Edge Warbond.

Here’s the full list of additions coming in the Democratic Detonation Warbond:

Weapons:

BR-14 Adjudicator Rifle, an armor-penetrating assault rifle
R-36 Eruptor Rifle, a bolt-action rifle that fires shells that explode shrapnel
CB-9 Exploding Crossbow, an exploding crossbow
G-123 Thermite Grenade, a grenade that can stick to surfaces and burn up enemies
GP-31 Grenade Pistol, a pistol that fires grenades
Expert Extraction Pilot Booster, lowers the time it takes for the shuttle to get to the extraction beacon