'Hang in there': A fix for all those Helldivers 2 freeze-ups should ideally land 'well before the Warbond', says community manager

helldivers 2
(Image credit: Arrowhead Game Studios)

If you've been playing Helldivers 2, chances are you've probably been booted to your desktop after extracting—I sure have. Typically, this bug causes a premature return to civilian life at the end of a mission, which is extra frustrating since they tend to take over half an hour to complete. At least, if you're as much of a sample-hungry completionist as I am.

Fortunately, a fix is on the way, as confirmed by community manager Twinbeard on the Helldivers 2 Discord: "I just briefly want to say that we're aware of the crashes primarily surrounding extraction/end of mission that currently a lot of you are facing. There's a hotfix arriving very soon."

(Image credit: Helldivers 2 Discord)

As for a timeframe, Twinbeard noted that they were "pretty sure" it'll arrive before the new Warbond, which is scheduled to deploy April 11. Granted, that's a solid 'maybe' passed on by a community manager—and considering the unruly nature of game development, there are no guarantees in bug-fix land. 

In the meantime, Twinbeard gently recommends that players either "hang in there or perhaps let the game rest for a while"—"perhaps" being the operative word here, as they later clarified: "I haven't told anyone to take a break. I merely suggested it as an alternative if you suffer a lot of crashes, until the hotfix is launched." Which is fair enough. There's only so much a community manager (heck, even a dev) can do in the face of a gnarly glitch.

Regardless, I'll personally be glad to see the back of this bug, since it does jam an unfortunate interruption into an otherwise silky-smooth gameplay loop of shooting bots (well, bugs, since there aren't bots anymore) grabbing samples, extracting, rinsing, repeating, and saluting the Super Earth flag. 

I've had a couple of play sessions where a crash has made me think 'right, I better take a break'. Which… might be for the best, honestly. I'm starting to hear binary in my dreams.

Harvey Randall
Staff Writer

Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.