As is the case with any content related to player customization, not every Premium Warbond will be everyone’s cup of tea inHelldivers 2, whether that’s because of their relevant aesthetic and theme, as well as the particular equipment they include or exclude. For example,Helldivers 2’s most recent Warbond, Force of Law, would’ve been a dream come true for anyone who adores a science-fiction law enforcement motif akin toDreddorRoboCop. Fortunately, there is perpetually a healthy rotation of themed content available in the Superstore, especially if players are happy to purchase items they won’t earn elsewhere.
That said, another important consideration to make regardingHelldivers 2Warbonds is how fun their associable content will be to actually wield in a loadout versus how detrimental it may be. Players who adorn Force of Law’s BP-32 Jackboot or BP-20 Correct Officer armor possess the Ballistic Padding armor passive, for instance, which provides a series of positive boons: 25% resistance to chest damage and explosive damage, as well as preventing all damage from bleeding if players’ chests hemorrhage.Helldivers 2’s newly announced Warbond, however, seems to chiefly consist of equipment and weapons that do significantly more harm than good.
Helldivers 2’s Control Group is a Case Study in Playful Masochism
The Control Group Warbond is amusingly leaning heavily on the idea of field-testing experimental alien technology procured fromHelldivers 2’s Illuminate, such as Dark Fluid, and repurposed as equipment designed by the Ministry of Defense Research & Development team. It’s possible that this could be the first significant step toward a full-scale Warbond representing the enemy faction, possibly with armor sets that transform players into voteless; nonetheless, appropriating alien technology and having it immediately backfire at the player’s expense is wholly comedic and predictable.
Indeed, Control Group is full of items that have huge asterisks attached in terms of how negatively they can affect players if wielded poorly or carelessly. Therefore, nearly every addition inHelldivers 2’s upcoming Warbondcomes with an appended warning that players can’t afford to overlook:
Helldivers 2’s Control Group Armor Passive Has a Massive Drawback
Moreover, perhaps the most egregious and deceptive new piece of equipment devised byHelldivers 2’s R&D teamis its armor passive for the AD-26 Bleeding Edge (medium) and AD-49 Apollonian (heavy) sets: AdrenoDefibrillator. On its surface, the Adreno-Defibrillator component sounds phenomenal as it behaves like a revive feature with full health replenishment.
If that were its whole function, AdrenoDefibrillator might be thebest newHelldivers 2armor passive. Rather, it must be stressed that “the AdrenoDefibrillator only has enough charge for one use to bring the user to maximum health, and the user will begin losing health continually after activating it.”
So, while the revive is a neat touch, players will suffer the cost of it for the remainder of the mission and will be preoccupied with relentlessly stimming themselves, lest they continue to die incessantly. Likewise, it’s also been clarified that the AdrenoDefibrillator passive doesn’t activate if players’ deaths result in the loss of a limb, meaning it won’t revive players in each and every instance of them perishing.
