Helldivers 2 patch changed ricochet damage, and now players think they're getting bodied by rockets that just bounce off bots

Helldivers 2 players are getting bodied by their own shots ricocheting back at them, but there's more going on here than meets the eye.

Yesterday, a huge new Helldivers 2 balance patch dropped, adjusting a vast number of weapons like the Quasar Canon Stratagem. What might have been overlooked at the time is that ricocheting shots were quietly changed, so that rebounding shots from heavily-armored enemies would now hit the player that fired them. "Trigger discipline is highly recommended," the patch notes helpfully pointed out.

This was apparently put to the test just hours later in the clip just below, in which a Devastator Automaton with a shield supposedly manages to send a rocket straight back at the player in question, immediately killing them. That the shield manages to send a powerful rocket right back at the player and kill them instantly should be pretty worrying for other Helldivers.

However, this might not be the case. The player below reveals that the clip above doesn't actually show the player getting exploded by the rebounding rocket, but rather another shot that comes from behind them. Looking at the slow-motion clip itself again, there's definitely a red damage indicator at the bottom of the screen, indicating the player actually was shot from behind.

No, automaton shields do NOT "reflect missiles". from r/Helldivers

What's more, the new player attempts to get a rocket to rebound from a Devastator's shield, only to come up with nothing. The back half of the clip above shows them putting the new ricocheting effects to the test by repeatedly firing rockets at a shield, and not once in the clip does the shield actually return the rocket back at the player.

It's all pretty confusing stuff, but there's no doubt that developer Arrowhead did alter the way ricocheting works in Helldivers 2, and we have the new patch notes themselves to prove that. Another player on Reddit, meanwhile, claims that rockets rebounding at them on three separate occasions, while others in the comments are again disputing the evidence.

What we do know for certain is that using a Punisher plasma-based weapon with a Shield backpack active will end in disaster. In a move that isn't dissimilar to Frank Herbert's Dune, attempting to fire the Punisher plasma through the Shield will cause a small explosion which can take off half the player's health. So do it twice and you're effectively dead.

Again, we don't really know what's going on here with the ricocheting rockets, but the Punisher aspect with the Shield is indisputable. It could be that ricocheting rockets are merely a bug, and that's why they're firing back at some players, but not everyone. Maybe we'll have to wait for Arrowhead to comment on the situation before it becomes clearer.

Check out our Helldivers 2 Deactivate Terminid Control System guide for how to complete the brand new mission type for the ongoing Major Order.