What is a Warbond?
Warbonds in Helldivers 2 are similar to battle passes from other games, but they don’t become unavailable when new ones are released. The game launched with two Warbonds: “Helldivers Mobilize” and “Steeled Veterans.”
If you bought the Super Citizen Edition of the game, you received the Steeled Veterans Warbond, along with some shiny golden armor and a unique SMG.
Warbonds can be purchased with Super Credits, costing 1,000 credits each. After purchasing a Warbond, you must earn Medals by completing missions to unlock each item. Super Credits can be found in-game and also earned by completing Warbonds, or purchased with real money.
Q. How often will new Warbonds be released? Can we preview the content in them? A. For right now, Warbonds will be released every second Thursday of the month. Every time a new Warbond is released, you will be able to preview the content, and the Warbonds will never disappear, so you can purchase them or not whenever you want to.
– Baskinator, an Arrowhead Game Studios Community Manager, via the official Helldivers 2 Discord FAQ
Polar Patriots, the newest Warbond
The first three Warbonds were met with excitement, and players generally liked the weapons and armors they offered, as some of the best weapons in the game come from the premium Warbonds. However, that changed with the release of the newest Warbond, “Polar Patriots.”
Polar Patriots introduced some underwhelming options. Starting with a new assault rifle called the AR-61 Tenderizer, which is only mid-tier. While it offers a bit more stagger per shot, it is overall just a worse version of the AR-23 Liberator that you start with at the beginning of the game.
On the positive side, on its second page it offers the SMG-72 Pummeler, an extremely effective choice versus Automatons due to its concussive effect, which easily staggers and stuns enemies such as Devastators and Berserkers.
It also introduced the P-113 Verdict pistol, a hybrid between the base P-2 Peacemaker and the P-4 Senator. The Verdict fires light armor-penetrating rounds, dealing more damage per shot than the Peacemaker but less than the Senator. It’s a solid choice for those wanting a semi-automatic pistol that deals more damage per shot but fires a bit slower.
Lastly, it includes the PLAS-11 Purifier, which has been criticized as one of the worst weapons in the game. It shares a few traits with the PLAS-1 Scorcher and the SG-8P Punisher Plasma, however the Purifier takes a full second to charge each shot, has less stagger, is less accurate, and doesn’t deliver enough damage to justify these drawbacks.
According to results from a poll on the official Helldivers 2 Discord, 71,513 players voted:
According to the poll, 42% of players do not like the new Warbond, while 14% say the new items don’t fit the theme. Additionally, 27% prefer fewer Warbonds and more patches, 12% believe Warbonds need more items in each release, and 4% say “It’s great!”