For the second time this month, Helldivers 2 IP holder PlayStation has put out an official research survey asking developer Arrowhead's bug- and bot-stomping community about their experience with the game. Today's survey, shared by official Arrowhead dev accounts on Reddit and Discord, zeroes in on how the game has changed after its recent suite of buffs, asking players how they're playing nowadays and what they're using. Once again, the Discord post was quickly pulled since "the survey is now full," but it still seems to be viewable on Reddit at the time of writing.
The previous survey was a short set of questions assessing how much fun Helldivers 2 players had in the past week, with two open-ended sections available to list anything you do or don't like about the game. Today's survey is noticeably more detailed, and thankfully features a more balanced scale for feedback.
The first question will feel familiar: "Thinking about your overall gameplay in the past week: How satisfied are you with your recent experience of Helldivers 2?" This time, players can answer on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being "very dissatisfied" and 5 being "very satisfied" – a much clearer range than the oddly positive options in the last survey, which listed "good" as the median score. There's also a "no opinion" response.
The second question is the same, too: two fields to list things you are and are not "currently" enjoying about Helldivers 2. Things get more interesting with the third question, which gauges thoughts on the September 17 balance patch. "How satisfied are you with the most recent balance patch?" it asks. It's worth noting that The Buffening was tied to a big jump in player count and improvements in user reviews.
The final two pages of the survey ask respondents to list up to three of the weapons and Stratagems that they're using "the least" along with a brief explanation of why. What I wouldn't give to find out how many different versions of "because it sucks" Helldivers 2 players come up with. In all seriousness, this sort of feedback could well inform what the next line of buffs looks like. Balance patches will inevitably swing both ways, but creative lead Johan Pilestedt agrees that "nerfing is an unimaginative way of tweaking a game," especially "when it comes to damage."
Finally, there's a section on how this balance patch has affected your play habits. In a nutshell, it asks, after the buff patch, are you playing on a lower difficulty, the same difficulty, or a higher difficulty? Some players have praised the buff patch for making high-level missions, including the newest Tier 10 missions, more accessible and rewarding, so I'd be curious to see how that anecdotal evidence compares to the data this survey collects.
