Helldivers 2 players are getting rocked by Hive Lords, but grunts are begging for Arrowhead not to nerf them: "The game was lacking a fear element"

Helldivers 2 player confronts a Hive Lord
(Image credit: Arrowhead)

Helldivers 2 players are getting their asses kicked by the new Hive Lord Terminids - and they're loving it.

If you've come limping to your old friends at GamesRadar+ to find out how to kill a Hive Lord in Helldivers 2, you'll know these giant, wormy, freaky Terminids are not to be trifled with, and in fact the best method of dealing with them seems to be avoiding them altogether at this point. It's a little disorienting to have an enemy so unstoppable in a game defined by blasting away hordes of bugs and robots by the droves, but it is what it is.

And, for the majority of the Helldivers 2 community it seems that what is is precisely what should be. "Pls don't nerf hivelords," reads a post from the Helldivers 2 subreddit with a whopping 20,000 upvotes and more than a thousand comments, largely in emphatic agreement.

"The game was lacking a fear element, and the hivelord fills that gap beautifully," says ohoyes35. "It feels like a force sent by nature, and while it's clearly not designed for killing, you don't need to say it should be nerfed just because you can't kill it. Think of it like the wardens in Minecraft."

Pls don't nerf hivelords from r/Helldivers

A Minecraft Warden is actually a fairly apt simile for Helldivers 2 Hive Lords, as a practically unkillable menace seemingly intended to add an element of high tension, stress, and fear to an otherwise not-very-scary experience - and without commensurate reward for defeating it. Helldivers 2 players generally seem to think nerfing Hive Lords would contradict the whole point of them, but there are plenty of players who would support some sort of Major Order directing freedom fighters to come together to beat one.

"I'd really like to see an 'Eliminate Hivelord' mission type added," reads a comment from Zilby with 5,000 upvotes.

I'm on board for this idea, personally. Making Hive Lords the target of a Major Order would definitely add some value to the prospect of killing them, and all in all could make for one of the game's most tense, chaotic struggles yet. Arrowhead, if you're listening, don't nerf Hive Lords, just give us a Major Order and some bigger guns for dealing with them.

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Jordan Gerblick

After earning an English degree from ASU, I worked as a corporate copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. I got my big break here in 2019 with a freelance news gig, and I was hired on as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer in 2021. That means I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my home office, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.

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