I feel the game is a bit easier, but not massively so. I have enjoyed being able to test old and new loadouts on difficulties 9 and 10. The choices feel way more open now.

Playing a squishy meatbag, facing overwhelming odds with a powerful arsenal is the best Helldivers has to offer.

“A group of four of us around level 80”

Level 50 was the original maximum. You’ve completed the game. Presumably by now you’ve unlocked everything, of course it’s easier. Try starting from level 1 again and see how you feel.

In general I think it’s a good thing. There’s still higher levels and if those are reached too easily, they could churn out even higher levels. I believe the point is not “make it easy” but make more builds viable and fun. You don’t need the absolute perfect load out to barely make it out of a mission, you can try new (wild) things and still make the run worth it at difficulty 6-7.

Around April I was doing difficulty 7 in a two squad regularly but then after each patch it was harder and harder and we could sometimes barely pass 6 and always running with the same S tier weapons. I think undoing the nerfs all at once made it very noticeable.

I feel the game resonates better with “we’re an unfairly powerful squad” rather than “this is space dark souls”.

Well, it’s what the community wanted. If you buff everything without adjusting the difficulty, it will get easier.

In my view, the community wants the game to be viable for solo dives up to the highest levels, so that’s what we’ve been given (I first felt that way after they reverted the spawn scaling changes). Some of the buffs were well needed, though, as many guns just couldn’t keep up with their counterparts in gameplay.

Pretty sure the Devs have said it’s a bit too easy now, remember the first game had 15 difficult settings. Personally I think it’s a great step in the right direction to make more of the loadouts viable and make the game more fun, it’s a power fantasy after all. It will mean that maybe some groups need to go up a difficult level or two and if you’re already storming through on 10 you can try the less optimal builds out while your waiting for the next difficulty levels to come out.

Did a level 10 operation on bugs yesterday and it was ridiculously easy compared to before. Bots were a bit more difficult, but we didn’t get anyone to join so with just 2 players it was impossible. Another level 10 bot mission later with 4 players was very easy.

I never felt like the difficulty tuning was the problem, it was the weak-ass weapons and constant weapon nerfs. But it seems like with the buffs they also nerfed spawns and now the weapons overpowers the difficulty again. They either need to buff weapons and keep the ridiculous spawn rates that should be overwhelming on level 10, or nerf the weapons again so it’s not that easy and requires more tactical gameplay.

There used to be a nice balance in difficulties, if it’s too difficult you could just down the level to something more chill. The top level ones are supposed to be a real challenge. Now they feel like what was previously a level 7, 8 or 9 level, depending on which enemies you get.

I only play in two helldiver squads and the game has definitely gotten easier. I always play on 6 - Extreme, except for Terminid High Value Assets missions due to Impalers. After the first mission, we immediately went up to 7 - Suicide Mission due to the lack of spawns. Generally, I would say it’s a good thing as you typically don’t see bile warriors, bile spewers, or spore chargers at level 6.