Arrowhead Game Studios has been updating Helldivers 2 since its launch using Warbonds, content packs that contain new weapons, cosmetics, and armor. Arrowhead vowed to make each Warbond angled towards a specific fantasy, like the 80s-themed Viper Commanders. The next Warbond is Freedom’s Flame, and it leans heavily into a common tool of war: fire. Lots and lots of fire.
Fire weapons are already part of Helldivers 2, and they can be a risky strategy to rock on the battlefield. For instance, I love using my Breaker Incendiary against waves of Terminids, as it absolutely melts those sneaky little bugs. It also scorches and kills other Helldivers in — or vaguely near — my line of fire. I might be tempted to equip the new weapons in the Freedom’s Flame Warbond, as they sound very fun, if also dangerously lethal.
The SG-451 Cookout is a pump action shotgun with incendiary phosphorous pellets, while the FLAM-66 Torcher is a lightweight flamethrower that makes for a more economical choice over the Flamethrower Stratagem. Or, if you want to go even smaller, the new Secondary Weapon is the P-72 Crisper, a pocket-sized flamethrower that erupts over short distances.
The armor sets are particularly exciting for all of my friends who have been scorched by friendly fire; they come with a bonus that grants 75% resistance to fire. Now everyone can stop yelling at me for setting them on fire; that’s great. Finally, there’s a booster that ignites the ground that Hellpods land on, which makes the landing equipment even more deadly to bots and bugs.
The Freedom’s Flame Warbond is set to go live on Aug. 8; it’ll join Helldivers 2’s biggest update yet, Escalation of Freedom, which is set to be released on Aug. 6. It’s an exciting time for the co-op shooter, and Arrowhead still has some tricks up its sleeve to unveil later — like that suspicious black hole emitting whale noises over at Meridia.
