The next Helldivers 2 Warbond is almost certainly a violation of international humanitarian law

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The next Helldivers 2 premium Warbond is coming later this month, bringing new stratagems, cosmetics, capes, and what would undoubtedly be cause for international outcry if Super Earth had anything like the Geneva Conventions. "Chemical Agents," revealed today on the official PlayStation blog, brings a new allotment of Helldiver ordnance focused on spraying poisonous gas, which would be horrifying in just about any other context. But against the Terminids, it's basically just fumigation on a bigger scale, right?

While Chemical Agents isn't bringing any new primary weapons, it's adding two new offensive stratagems—a first for Warbonds. "Adding stratagem variants to Warbonds is new with Chemical Agents, but our designers felt that since gas is a crowd control tool, it made more sense to release stratagems and let Helldivers choose the primary weapons they love the most," Arrowhead said.

Call in the TX-41 Sterilizer, and you'll receive a handheld, high-pressure sprayer that dispenses gouts of corrosive gas for tactical bug extermination. If you don't want to lay down the fumes yourself, the Warbond also provides the option of the AX/TX-13 "Guard Dog" Dog Breath drone, a "gassy little pal" that's a poison-spraying alternative to the existing Guard Dog variants.

Not all the additions are indefensible war crimes, however. The P-11 Stim Pistol, one of the Warbond's two new utility equipment options, lets you fire healing darts at any fellow Helldiver who hasn't realized he's dying yet. The other one's a gas grenade. We don't have a great ratio here, folks.

As always, the Warbond also adds two new armor sets. In Chemical Agents, they come equipped with a new Advanced Filtration passive, which adds gas cloud resistance—I'm curious to see whether it'll also offer any defensive benefit against the Terminids' own caustic gas weaponry. In addition, there are the obligatory new capes, a few fluorescent yellow camo patterns for shuttles, hellpods, and exosuit mechs, and an emote that makes you wave your hand in front of your face like someone did a bad fart. Because of the gas. You get it.

The Chemical Agents Warbond will release on September 19, 2024.

Lincoln has been writing about games for 12 years—unless you include the essays about procedural storytelling in Dwarf Fortress he convinced his college professors to accept. Leveraging the brainworms from a youth spent in World of Warcraft to write for sites like Waypoint, Polygon, and Fanbyte, Lincoln spent three years freelancing for PC Gamer before joining on as a full-time News Writer in 2024, bringing an expertise in Caves of Qud bird diplomacy, getting sons killed in Crusader Kings, and hitting dinosaurs with hammers in Monster Hunter.