Helldivers 2 updates target server and reward issues as Arrowhead apologise for rocky launch

Helldivers 2 is yet another example of a predominantly co-op game being a victim of its own success. Since its launch, the servers have buckled under the weight of keen conscripts ready to exterminate some bugs. There's been frequent disconnects, matchmaking issues, and post-game rewards not showing up for some folks. But Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt has offered some comfort, saying that they've popped three hotfixes live to fix some of these issues.

In a post on Xwitter and through Steam's newsfeed, Pilestedt delves into the main reason why folks may have struggled to login over the past few days. "To speak in technical terms, our services as well as our partner services have a rate limiter that denies connections beyond a volume per minute to prevent the entire system from failing". In other words, the rate limiter gate has been bulging at the seams since launch. And so, they widened the gate, increasing the limit from 10,000 to 20,000 logins per minute, and further increasing the total player capacity from 250,000 to 360,000.

What Arrowhead hadn't anticipated was the player count jumping from 250,000 to 360,000 "after 5 1⁄2 minutes". As such, the "issue with login remains". If you're denied entry, it means that the maximum number of login requests per minute has been exceeded, or that the servers are full and will require someone to log out before allowing newcomers in. I've been playing the game a fair amount and only encountered one login issue, which resolved itself when I spammed the "let me in" button relentlessly.

When it comes to the reward issue, Pilestedt says the "fix was mitigated but not resolved". The game will need "additional server maintenance" on this count - until this happens, the reward system won't work as intended. If you do get the issue, he suggests "rebooting the game to increase the chances of it being reset". Again, it's all due to high server traffic and the servers incorrectly tracking player earnings.

"I know the progression issue is frustrating, especially for newer divers that want to unlock sweet gear," Pilestedt says in conclusion. "For now, please once again accept our sincere apologies for the issues you’re facing and rest assured, we’re doing our utmost to make it right. In order to do so, right now it is crucial that our team gets some sleep and we will be back at this again in a few hours."

And rightly so, I mean, please look after yourselves! Helldivers 2's review score is currently sitting at "Mostly Positive" on Steam (up from "Mixed" when it first launched), with many folks complaining about the issues. I get it, but also, the game is a cracking time and the devs have rolled out a bunch of fixes already. I think we should cut them some slack.