Christmas comes early for Helldivers 2 players as Arrowhead adds a minigun, flamethrower drone, and a chain sword all in one glorious Warbond

The new Helldivers 2 Warbond Python Commandos, a spiritual successor to June 2024's Viper Commandos collection, has served up a heaping handful of hotly wishlisted additions to Arrowhead's democratic combat sandbox. Having followed the Helldivers 2 community for nearly two years now, I'm ecstatic for the many divers who I know have finally gotten their white whale.

The Helldivers 2 Python Commandos Warbond will arrive on December 2, headlined by one of the most-wanted Stratagem weapons of all time: a minigun. Rather, a chaingun. Or rather, the M-1000 Maxigun, "belt-fed with ultra-high ammo capacity," as Arrowhead community manager Katherine "Baskinator" Baskin confirms in a PlayStation Blog post.

"The Ministry of Defense received thousands of requests from squad commanders for a minigun," she notes, and "this one is sure to make those bugs bleed."

Helldivers 2 - Python Commandos Warbond Trailer - YouTube

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The good times keep rolling with the reveal of the AX/FLAM-75 "Guard Dog" Hot Dog, a flamethrower-equipped drone that can perch on your backpack to refuel. Helldivers 2 is, terrifyingly, already approaching the end of its second year, but I still have distinct memories of launch players joking about what a team-killing menace a hypothetical flamethrower drone would be. We're about to find out if they were right.

Finally, Gears of War fans and Warhammer enthusiasts alike are getting their very own chain sword. The CQC-9 Defoliation Tool would, indeed, be good for dealing with pesky foliage, but as a saber-chainsaw hybrid, it should also work pretty well on the enemies of mankind.

I don't want to gloss over the new-but-fairly-normal AR/GL-21 One-Two assault rifle, equipped with a grenade launcher described as packing "two guns in one" for your primary slot, but I'm a bit distracted by the armor sets coming in Python Commandos. More specifically, the armor perk, with both new sets "equipped with the Rock Solid passive, which makes your Helldiver more steadfast against staggering and ragdolling attacks." Ragdolling is essential to Helldivers 2's slapstick comedy, but sometimes you don't want to flail wildly through the air mid-combat, so this ought to come in handy. All in all, this is looking like one of the best Warbonds in recent memory. Merry Christmas.

Arrowhead's next game "won't be something that's too far off from" Helldivers 2, creative lead says: "We're looking to continue the legacy of what we've created."