Helldivers 2’s first big patch of 2025 obliterates road safety laws to allow grenade and stratagem drive-bys while you’re leaning out of the FRV like a maniac

Helldivers 2 just got a pretty beefy patch for the first time in a little bit, and it boasts a number of tweaks that sound like they’ll make your future missions more fun. For example, you’ll now be able to lob grenades and deploy stratagems while leaning out of your FRV seat in a manner that probably won’t draw any enemy fire.

As outlined in the notes for Patch 01.002.101, it’s made a number of things your diver previously couldn’t do possible, as well as bringing some balancing tweaks and the standard array of bug fixes.

Before we outline the rest of the changes, here are a few of the highlights. You can now “deploy grenades and stratagems while leaning out from the FRV”, something I’m sure will make driving right into a gaggle of voteless even more fun, assuming you can avoid obliterating yourself with about fifty different explosions.

It’s also now possible to emote while falling or ragdolling once again, something everyone – including Arrowhead CEO Shams Jorjani – loved before the studio stopped it from being a thing for a little while. “It should no longer reduce fall damage, but you’ll be able to freely express yourself as you fall to your imminent death or severe injuries,” Arrowhead writes.

It’s also now possible to jog while carrying two-handed items such as barrels and SEAF Artillery Rounds, and things will be a bit gassier in space, thanks to the duration of the gas status effect from spray weapons being boosted from 6 seconds to 10.

Minus those bits we’ve just mentioned, here are the rest of the major changes, without the stuff that’s just been flagged as a non-top priority big fix or a known issue yet to be dealt with:

General Changes

• Implemented a timer for the Illuminate dropship wreckages to despawn to prevent them from obstructing paths in the colonies

FRV

• Tuned FRV handling for a better driving experience when cornering

Sidearms

• Starting magazines increased from 2 to 3

• Spare magazines increased from 4 to 5

Stratagem Support Weapons

TX-41 Sterilizer

• Removed the crosshair drift recoil

• Decreased the camera climb recoil

Armor Passives

• After hearing player feedback, we have decided not to fix a bug with the Siege Ready Armor Passive which gives more ammo to all magazine-based weapons, instead of just primary weapons as described. We will eventually update the Armory description to reflect this but for now we’re evaluating if it’s causing any other additional unforeseen bugs

Backpacks

AX/TX-13 “Guard Dog” Dog Breath

• Has been reworked to increase its effectiveness and to ensure it remains distinct, focusing on its unique gas-based mechanics.

• It will now preserve ammo by only prioritizing enemies unaffected by the gas status effect. Once an enemy is affected by gas the drone will move on and target another unaffected enemy

• The targeting logic has been reworked to prevent the drone from roaming too far. The origin of the targeting will be from the Helldivers position rather than the drone itself

• The targeting range has been increased from 10 to 20m

Stratagems

MD-6 Anti-Personnel Minefield

• Cooldown decreased from 180 to 120 sec

• Damage increased from 350 to 700

• The deployment spread of mines has been increased by 20% to minimize the risk of chain explosions

MD-I4 Incendiary Mines

• Cooldown decreased from 180 to 120 sec

• Damage increased from 210 to 300

• The deployment spread of mines has been increased by 20% to minimize the risk of chain explosions

MD-17 Anti-Tank Mines

• Cooldown decreased from 180 to 120 sec

SH-20 Ballistic Shield Backpack

• Now blocks melee attacks until it breaks from taking enough damage

Resolved Top Priority issues:

• Fixed Illuminate spawner ship shields not taking impact grenade damage

• Fixed an issue with collision gaps inside the Illuminate spawner ship, preventing grenades thrown in close proximity to the door from destroying the ships

• Health packs now fully restore all of the Helldiver’s stims

• High damage weapons will now detonate spawned Hellbombs on the map

This first big patch of 2025 arrives as the divers are busy battling the Jet Brigade in the Galactic War, and it seems like something big could be brewing with the Illuminate.