Helldivers 2’s First Big Update of 2025 Lets You Emote While Ragdolling Once Again, Tweaks Balance, and More

Helldivers 2's substantial 2025 update, patch 01.002.101, is now live, introducing significant gameplay adjustments and bug fixes. This over 5GB patch, arriving near the game's first anniversary and the introduction of the Illuminate faction, has sparked speculation about potential hidden additions beyond the documented changes.

Key improvements include extended gas duration from spray weapons and the restoration of emoting during flight or ragdoll states. A particularly noteworthy (and oddly worded) fix addresses a visual glitch with the Stalker's tongue.

Here's a breakdown of the patch notes:

Balancing Changes:

• General: Increased spray weapon gas duration to 10 seconds from 6; implemented a despawn timer for Illuminate dropship wreckage to improve pathing.
• Helldiver: Jogging while carrying two-handed items is now permitted.
• FRV (Fast Response Vehicle): Grenade and stratagem deployment while leaning from the FRV is enabled; FRV handling is improved, particularly during cornering.
• Sidearms: Increased starting magazines to 3 (from 2) and spare magazines to 5 (from 4).
• TX-41 Sterilizer (Stratagem Support Weapon): Reduced recoil and camera climb; increased gas duration to 10 seconds.
• Siege Ready Armor Passive: A bug granting extra ammo to all weapons (not just primaries as intended) remains unfixed for now, pending further evaluation.
• AX/TX-13 “Guard Dog” Dog Breath (Backpack): Reworked for improved effectiveness, prioritizing gas-unaffected enemies and limiting drone roaming range. Targeting range increased to 20m. Gas duration increased to 10 seconds.
• MD-6 Anti-Personnel Minefield, MD-I4 Incendiary Mines, MD-17 Anti-Tank Mines (Stratagems): Cooldown reduced to 120 seconds (from 180); damage increased; mine deployment spread widened to reduce chain explosions.
• SH-20 Ballistic Shield Backpack: Now blocks melee attacks until destroyed.

Fixes:

• High Priority: Emoting is re-enabled during falls/ragdolls (without affecting fall damage); Illuminate spawner ship shields now take impact grenade damage; collision gaps in Illuminate ships are fixed; health packs fully restore stims; high-damage weapons now detonate Hellbombs.
• Crash Fixes: Numerous crash fixes related to mission aborts, hot-joining, emotes, fires, drop-in sequences, reloading, armor changes, tutorial completion, extraction, projectile fire, objective carrying, text language changes, and SG-20 Halt reloading.
• Social & Matchmaking: Improved matchmaking for regional proximity; fixed chat history clearing issue.
• Weapons & Stratagems: Addressed issues with emplacement usage, Arc weapon accuracy, E/AT-12 Anti-Tank Emplacement armor penetration tag, stratagem turret targeting, heat weapon visual display, melee weapon physics, B-1 Supply Pack stim distribution.
• FRV: FRV reinforcement to prevent minor impact explosions; FRV camera improvements; reduced rooftop drops; fixed non-QWERTY keyboard input issues; addressed enemy launch distance when hit by FRV.
• Helldiver: Fixed ragdoll interactions with FRV, civilian cars, and water; addressed ground sliding after blasts.
• Enemies: Fixed Stalker tongue visual bug; addressed enemy non-reaction to missed shots.
• Miscellaneous: Various audio, civilian pathing, visual (floating head), and damage-related fixes.

Known Issues:

• High Priority: Black box terminal clipping; stratagem ball unpredictable bounces; DSSP pathfinding; Dolby Atmos on PS5.
• Medium Priority: Pelican-1 ramp sticking; explosive ragdolling; cape display; "This is Democracy" emote unintended consequence; AX/TX-13 ammo display; Barrager Tank stats; LAS-5 Scythe zoom; charge-up weapon firing behavior.

This update addresses many player concerns and improves overall gameplay. However, several issues remain to be addressed in future patches.