Helldivers 2 Update 7.2.0 Patch Notes in Full

Arrowhead released Helldivers 2 update 7.2.0 on October 20, 2026, built around the Easy Anti-Cheat Switch, a Killzone and Halo warbond balance pass, and a long list of crash fixes.

Shotguns and the Sickle variants took the heaviest buffs, the Orbital Airburst Strike lost ten seconds of cooldown, and PC players get shorter shader compilation hitches along with better multithreaded performance. The jump from 330 to 396 damage on the SG-225 Breaker is the line I checked first. The full notes follow.

New Anti-Cheat

• Easy Anti-Cheat implemented, with additional security tools layered on top to improve game integrity protection

General Gameplay

• The bug strain that spawns Bile Warriors, Spewers and Scavengers, which could previously turn active at random during a mission, is now split into its own strain controlled by the Game Masters, with its own visualization showing when it is active, the same way Rupture and Spore Burst already work

Balancing

Balance pass on the Killzone and Halo Legendary warbond weapons.

M90A Shotgun

• Damage increased from 605 to 726
• Durable damage increased from 220 to 264

MA5C Assault Rifle

• Recoil vertical drift decreased from 20 to 15
• Recoil vertical climb decreased from 30 to 20
• Recoil horizontal climb decreased from 12 to 6
• Durable damage increased from 16 to 20

StA-52 Assault Rifle

• Spare max magazines increased from 6 to 7
• Recoil vertical drift decreased from 15 to 7.5
• Recoil vertical climb decreased from 25 to 12.5
• Recoil horizontal drift decreased from 10 to 5
• Recoil horizontal climb decreased from 6 to 4

StA-11 SMG

• Damage increased from 90 to 100
• Durable damage increased from 18 to 20
• Recoil vertical drift decreased from 20 to 12
• Recoil vertical climb decreased from 10 to 8
• Ergonomics increased from 80 to 90

PLAS-39 Accelerator Rifle

• Reload time cut from 3.3 seconds to 2.7 seconds
• Projectile stagger strength decreased from 20 to 15

LAS-16 Sickle

• Delay between pressing the trigger and the first shot cut from 0.5 seconds to 0.33 seconds
• Delay before heat starts cooling after firing cut from 1.33 seconds to 0.66 seconds
• Heat build up per projectile reduced from 1.15 to 0.95

LAS-17 Double-Edge Sickle

• Delay between pressing the trigger and the first shot cut from 0.5 seconds to 0.33 seconds
• Delay before heat starts cooling after firing cut from 1.33 seconds to 0.66 seconds

SG-8 Punisher

• Damage increased from 405 to 486
• Durable damage increased from 108 to 135

SG-225 Breaker

• Damage increased from 330 to 396
• Durable damage increased from 66 to 88

SG-225SP Breaker Spray&Pray

• Damage increased from 240 to 288
• Durable damage increased from 64 to 80

SG-22 Bushwhacker

• Damage increased from 450 to 540
• Durable damage increased from 108 to 135

Missions

• Minor combat balancing tweaks for EVACUATE HIGH VALUE ASSETS

Stratagems

M-1000 Maxigun

• Movement control returns instantly after firing, down from a 0.5 second delay
• Stagger force increased from 15 to 20
• Stagger impulse increased from 12 to 24

CQC-20 Breaching Hammer

• Spare charges increased from 7 to 10

Orbital Airburst Strike

• Cooldown decreased from 100 to 90
• Explosion cone angle decreased from 35 to 27, tightening the shrapnel pattern

EXO-51 Lumberer Exosuit

• Flame particle damage increased from 3 to 8

A/FLAM-40 Flame Sentry

• Flame particle damage increased from 3 to 8

Eagle Airstrike Gas

• Explosion demolition strength decreased from 50 to 40

Crash Fixes

Ten of the fixes in this build deal with crashes, several of them tied to vehicles, upscalers and resolution changes.

• Fixed a crash when scrolling through and equipping vehicle customization patterns in Ship Management
• Fixed customized vehicle previews failing or crashing after rapid customization pattern changes
• Fixed two crashes tied to SEAF shuttles with large enemy counts on screen
• Fixed a rare crash when another Helldiver reloads the Flak Cannon on an Exo suit under poor network conditions
• Fixed a crash when emoting with SEAF soldiers
• Fixed a crash tied to ragdolls
• Fixed an issue where popups caused a crash
• Fixed an upscaler issue that produced a crash or a grey screen at certain resolutions
• Cycling between resolutions or render scale no longer crashes the game
• Improved DirectX 12 stability

Weapon, Enemy and Objective Fixes

The next group covers weapons behaving incorrectly, enemy behaviour and objectives that could stall a mission.

• Fixed the M-103 Supply FRV turret spamming movement audio near enemies without visibly moving
• Fixed the TD-220 Bastion main gun triggering the team reload request voice line
• Fixed reloading the flak cannon on the EXO-55 Breakthrough Exosuit working incorrectly in some cases
• The 40-K Meltagun now destroys the sides of Command Bunkers correctly
• Fixed the Hellbomb being unavailable on one side of the Gazer Spire objective
• Fixed the Melta Mine triggering inconsistently on the Vox Engine
• Fixed an animation issue with the Hyena when a reload is interrupted
• Fixed the Bile Titan clipping through the cave roof in some Spore Lung passages
• The Crescent Overseer backpack can now be destroyed, which kills the enemy
• The Hive Lord now leaves combat sooner when players stop damaging it for a set time
• Fixed Vox Engine doors dealing too much damage to grounded players
• Fixed Watchers spawning in very large numbers when Illuminate fleets are mixed
• Crusher head gore no longer leaves a transparent hole at the neck
• Fixed Hulk Scorchers taking damage and stagger from their own saw attack

Performance and Visual

Performance work focuses on CPU threading and particle effects, with three fixes flagged for PC specifically.

• Improved multithreaded performance for smoother frame pacing and better frame times, with the biggest gains on lower core count CPUs and Xbox Series S
• Reduced stuttering in heavy combat by optimizing particle effect processing
• General improvements to level loading responsiveness
• Reduced hitching from shader compilation
• Fixed graphical issues from Dynamic Resolution Scaling on AMD Radeon cards
• Adjusted Screen Space Reflections to flicker less without anti-aliasing
• Fixed horizontal streak artifacts in reflections
• Fixed visual artifacts around objects with background smoke and Variable Rate Shading active
• Dynamic Resolution Scaling now checks for GPU bound frames before dropping resolution
• The Message Of The Day image in Example Patch Notes now uses the correct aspect ratio
• Added the missing color grading when NVIDIA DLSS or AMD FSR upscaling is enabled

Miscellaneous Fixes

The remaining entries run from stuck geometry and pathing to text rendering, emotes and console chat notices.

• Fixed players getting stuck in one of the Extract Organic Soup locations
• Fixed a SEAF using the wrong voice line when revived by another SEAF
• Fixed the Democracy ain’t done with you yet achievement unlocking when stimming a SEAF
• Fixed disconnected player names staying on the minimap
• Fixed enemy pathing on Illuminate missions
• Fixed a softlock on the Condemn Illicit Experiments objective where the camera got stuck under the portable comms relay
• Fixed the IX-Voidwalker helmet disappearing at some camera angles
• Fixed only Harvesters spawning in cities against the Appropriator fleet
• Explosions starting inside a shield bubble now damage entities inside the shield
• Fixed players getting stuck in the Sabotage Pipes location
• Fixed the Charger struggling to navigate one of the Collect Data locations
• Fixed players getting stuck under a pipe in one of the Extract Organic Soup locations
• Fixed enemy traversal in one of the Collect Data locations
• Fixed players floating above ground while using the Data Jack on the Disrupt Shield Generator objective
• Fixed enemy navigation in one of the Spore Lung objective locations
• Support weapon settings such as fire mode now persist between uses and across sessions
• Fixed the Recover Scientific Specimens optional objectives
• Fixed missing animations when interacting with a minigame while Dispatches are on screen
• Extreme weather is now more muted behind large objects and indoors
• Fixed weapons on the ship bridge disappearing at a certain camera angle
• Improved the soundscape when filming with the shoulder mounted camera in first person
• Reworked assisted reload animations so they read better when the shooter is prone
• Fixed a rendering bug causing incorrect lighting on certain particle effects such as smoke plumes
• ICBM lights now switch off once unlocked, making the remaining locks easier to see
• Fixed a Democracy Officer voiceover line about the Gloom playing far more often than intended
• Added SEAF emotes: Rock Paper Scissors, Pull My Finger and Test of Conviction
• Improved hitbox alignment for ragdolling enemies during frame rate drops
• Fixed some character parts behaving incorrectly during ragdoll transitions
• Adjusted the hologram map banners marking special enemy variants for readability
• Improved the Stingray cooldown mechanism with many enemies present, bringing spawn frequency closer to intent
• The GPU busy percentage frame statistic is now available on all platforms
• Added an overlay explaining when chat is unavailable due to console communication restrictions
• Fixed text in certain popups not scrolling with a controller
• Username changes now update mid game in multiplayer
• Bug rocks no longer bleed red
• Fixed spawned Exo suits using the default skin instead of the selected one for late joining players
• Fixed Helldivers being knocked into the air when exiting a driving vehicle
• Fixed enemies failing to spawn at locations on CR1 Appropriator planets
• Tesla and Generator VFX no longer scale up at a distance
• Fixed overlapping voiceover on immediate extraction missions
• Fixed Infiltrate Illuminate Lair objectives not being taggable in some situations
• Fixed city destruction sync issues
• Fixed the Message of the Day QR code so it works with more phones
• Fixed minor navigation issues on desert planets
• Fixed cave points of interest sitting partly outside the cave
• In world subtitles now respect subtitle settings
• Replaying the tutorial level no longer resets custom armor choices
• Fixed Hellpods landing on cave roofs on Hive Worlds
• The SEAF Gun stratagem name now updates with the projectile type in the stratagem list
• Fixed various bugs in armory weapon customization
• Fixed the minimap Fog of War effect failing to sync between players
• Cyrillic characters no longer show extra spacing for players using non-Cyrillic text
• Display names using Bengali, Devanagari and Thai characters now render correctly, and ship operator names show up again on consoles
• Fixed some leaping enemies jumping the wrong way when targeting the Breakthrough Exosuit
• Switching equipment slots during an emote no longer causes unnatural weapon handling
• Added a back button to the initial speech setting screen

Arrowhead published the complete 7.2.0 notes on the Helldivers 2 Steam Community page.