Helldivers 2 patch makes life hellish indeed for smaller parties, but also makes maps more fun to explore

Hell, it turns out, isn't always a bubbly pool of magma where like, devils prod you with forks. There is a second hell in Helldivers 2, a hell made up of wartorn planets and soldiers who fight bile-spewing bugs and robots. And it is a hell that is subject to patches. One such update has nerfed a bunch of weapons including the popular quasar cannon. It's also increased the number of enemy patrols based on player numbers and tweaked the game's level generation, with the former making life more difficult in hell, and the latter possibly making things more interesting.

One of the biggest changes of the patch - specifically, update 01.000.300 (rolls off the tongue) - sees enemy patrol spawns increased "when there are fewer than four players". And when there are fewer players, "the bigger the change". If you're in a team of four, there will be no difference. However! If you're in a party of fewer than four, you'll start seeing more patrols, with solo-players being hit the hardest.

The game is, in theory, now much more difficult for those who'd rather play by themselves or in groups with fewer than four players. I wonder if the increase in patrol spawns was, in part, because Arrowhead wanted to cut down on solo players being able to avoid patrols so easily, especially if those players were farming premium currency. Perhaps Arrowhead also wanted folks to party up with each other through matchmaking? Either way, I can see folks being a bit disgruntled with this change.

There's also been "minor level generation improvements", in how locations are distributed across maps. "This should improve variation in distance between objectives, and objectives will likely not spawn as far away from each other as often as before." As someone who doesn't like trekking miles between objectives, this strikes me as a helpful tweak that should cut down on the half marathons.

Elsewhere, there are lots of weapons balance changes, among which the beloved Quasar Cannon has had its recharge time increased by five seconds. That's a whole lot of seconds, rendering it a lot less spammable and, probably, more of the weapon it should've been in the first place.

I'm also happy to see the Bile Spewer and Nursing Spewers having their movespeed slightly reduced, although I'd rather they were deleted from the game outright. I hate those guys.

For all the fixes and buffs and nerfs and things, make sure you have a read through the official patch notes.