Helldivers 2's upcoming Warbond will let you set your enemies on fire with just about everything—including your Hellpod

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Only the friendliest of fire.

A Helldiver charges through the fire and flames in Helldivers 2.
(Image credit: Arrowhead Games)

Helldivers 2 has proudly announced it'll be asking the bravest question a game has ever asked—"yes, the flamethrower's cool, but what if we added more flamethrowers?"

The upcoming premium Warbond, dubbed "Freedom's Flame" features two new primary weapons, a new secondary weapon, a booster, two armour sets (with a new passive), a title, paint for your mech, hellpod and pelican, fresh capes and—most importantly—the ability to finally chest-bump your mates.

  • The SG-451 Cookout, a pump-action shotty that fires "a burst of incendiary phosphorus pellets."
  • The FLAM-66 Torcher, a primary weapon that's also a flamethrower—a type previously relegated to support weaponry.
  • The P-72 Crisper, which is a secondary weapon that also throws flames, but in a compact enough form to fit into your Super Earth standard issue freedom purse and/or tote bag.
  • The "Fiery Drop" booster which, hilariously, turns your Hellpods into incendiary bombs.
  • The I-09 Heatseeker and I-102 Draconaught armour sets, which come with a much-needed passive that reduces fire damage taken by 75%.

With the G-10 Incendiary grenade in the game, all of this means that you can rock up into battle with three different kinds of flamethrower, a grenade that sets people on fire, and an armour passive that lets you do all of that while remaining mostly unsigned. Your teammates, on the other hand? If they were truly patriotic, they wouldn't be on fire. They're probably traitors anyway.

I genuinely shudder to think about the kind of pandaemonium a team of fired-up freedom fighters could cause on Extreme Cold planets, which reduce the heat build-up on fire and laser weapons (for context, build-up is the amount of time it takes with your finger squeezed on the trigger before you need to reload or let the thing cool down). You might need someone to break theme with an armour-piercing support weapon, but still—the mental image of it fills me with patriotic joy.

Freedom's Flame will be released on August 8, just two days after the major content update Escalation of Freedom—meaning it might just be the month where I get back into Helldivers 2 again properly. It's been a while, and I'm pretty sure I can find some bugs that need toasting.

Harvey Randall
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.