Helldivers 2 CEO Johan Pilestedt Admits Regret Over ‘too complex for players’ Feature Cut From the Game

Players have been fighting the galactic war for democracy in the co-op shooter title Helldivers 2. The game has several types of weapons and plenty of firepower at the player’s disposal to take on aliens and bugs and defeat them before spreading to help bring democracy to Super Earth.

The players are now looking to build their arsenal of the best weapons available in the game and are discussing them among the community. However, the weapon stats in Helldivers 2 are not revealed, and Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt has expressed his regret over it.

Hiding Weapon Stats in Helldivers 2 Was a Bad Call, Arrowhead CEO

Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt has been very active on X/Twitter since the release of Helldivers 2 and has been addressing players’ questions and concerns. As the discussions around weapon stats in the game grow, Pilestedt stated that the stats are “a guideline,” and it is more complicated than that.

Pilestedt said that there are over 50 stats in total for every gun, but the game does not display them for players to see. One player asked Pilestedt why the stats were hidden, to which he replied, “in retrospect it might have been a bad call,” adding that “It was deemed too complex for players.”

The developers wanted to only provide necessary information to the players and not overwhelm them with too much of it, which the 50 stats might have done, but gamers are demanding to see it. Many players added that it would be nice to see the basic stats or just an input to see “Advanced Stats.” It remains to be seen if the developer does something about it in the next update.

Helldivers 2 currently shows four statistics for every weapon: damage, capacity, recoil, and fire rate. Pilestedt also shared a picture of the weapon stats page from the earlier version of the game that included a fifth stat called “Ergonomics,” and one page showed stats such as reload time, fire modes, magazines, and muzzle velocity in meters per second.

Johan Pilestedt Explains Armor Penetration in Helldivers 2

While talking about the weapon stats, Johan Pilestedt also broke down the mechanics behind the armor penetration when a player asked, “What defines an armor pen?” and added that the Senator has light armor penetration like most weapons, but it penetrates “through hive guard armor like paper,” while other weapons bounce off the hive guard armor.

Pilestedt explained that the armor penetration is “a value between 0 and 10.” He further said that if it is equal to the enemy’s armor value, the damage is 50%, and if the armor penetration beats the enemy’s armor, players do 100% damage, adding that “if the AP is less than the AV the bullet ricochets.”

The game’s earlier version also showed how the weapon’s recoil affects its bullet spread, with the recoil being a combination of 14 hidden values. Pilestedt said that players should use the weapons they like the most and not give heed to the conversation about metas.

What are your thoughts about weapon stats in Helldivers 2? Let us know in the comments below.