I'd never considered the prospect that some people might cheat at playing Helldivers 2. But I suppose it's inevitable given some people will find ways to cheat at anything. In this case, rogue Helldivers have found ways to game super credits—the premium currency used to buy Warbonds—to earn them at impossible rates, and it's become such a problem that Arrowhead has implemented new ways to tackle it.
"You've told us that cheaters and exploiters ruin the experience that it feels unfair when someone games the super credit system while you're out there earning yours the hard way," Arrowhead wrote in a Steam post. "We heard you, and we're starting to implement changes that will tackle issues like this."
Arrowhead only explains these changes in the broadest terms, stating they include "improving our monitoring methods for suspicious super credit activity." Basically, if Arrowhead sees a player earning credits "at an unreasonably high rate" there are "now steps in place to counter this."
The developer stresses that players who earn super credits the traditional way—grinding maps, clearing POIs, looting bunkers etc "will never experience any change". Instead, the system is targeted at "Cheaters. Botters. People using automation and duplication exploits to hoover up super credits at rates no human Helldiver could ever reach legitimately."
Ultimately, Arrowhead claims that "A healthier economy means the super credits you earn through honest service to Super Earth stay worth earning". This could be a joke, but it is a slightly odd way to frame the solution in any case given Helldivers 2 doesn't really have an economy. At least, not one that players have any real say in. It isn't like you can buy and sell items from other players, or that the price of Warbonds is affected by the game in any way. Not to mention, the main benefactor of these changes would be Arrowhead, as it is the studio which ultimately profits off of super credits.
Which isn't to say that cheaters should be allowed to roam freely, especially if players' games are being clogged up by bots. But I do wonder if the prevalence of credit cheaters in Helldivers 2 is symptomatic of a broader problem—namely that earning super credits is tremendously boring.
As has been the case since launch, players can only acquire super credits from the same dozen or so points of interest that appear randomly on a map, and scouring those POIs time and again grew tiresome ages ago. Compounding the problem is that the fastest way to earn super credits is to play on easier difficulties, creating a contradiction between natural player progression and unlocking premium items.
To be clear, I'm not saying that earning super credits should be easier—although given Helldivers 2 is a premium game that has sold 20 million copies by this point, Arrowhead could afford to be a bit more generous with them. But I would like earning super credits to be more fun, perhaps tied to some new side objectives or combat challenges rather than blithely hoping they appear in some random bunker or shipping crate.
Super credits aside, Arrowhead's broader efforts to address player concerns with Helldivers 2 appears to be working. The studio has adjusted and reworked many different aspects of the game lately, from performance to player progression.
As a result, recent Steam reviews have shifted from mostly negative to mostly positive in the space of a couple of months. While I wouldn't say we're in the "We're so back" phase of the game's turbulent relationship with its community, Helldivers 2 is kind of back, which is good to see.
