Helldivers 2 is addressing a common issue within its gaming community with a significant update set for August. The third-person shooter game has recently announced measures to counteract "grief kicking," a problem that has plagued many players. The upcoming Escalation of Freedom update will not only bring new enemies, mission objectives, and a heightened difficulty level, but will also incorporate a quality-of-life change aimed squarely at unfair in-game behavior.
Arrowhead has revealed that the new update, scheduled for August 6, includes features designed to mitigate "grief kicking." Social media and community manager Katherine Baskin explained in a PlayStation Blog post that the developers are aware of players using team kicking to disrupt others' experiences. To combat this, players who are kicked from a session will now find themselves as the host of a new session, retaining all the loot, including valuable Samples, from the mission they were forcibly removed from.
Previously, all items had to be picked up by players before extraction. With the new update, the squad initiating the kicking will see a notification in the chat widget, indicating that a player has been kicked while ensuring the loot remains unchanged. This ensures that everyone has the chance to retain all collected loot, minimizing the disruptive impact of being kicked from a session.
Kicking has been an issue in Helldivers 2 since its launch earlier this year. Players often found themselves removed from sessions when not adhering to specific weapon and stratagem choices that were considered the best meta for higher difficulty levels, like the Breaker Shotgun at the time. Despite players becoming more lenient with these requirements, the developers recognized this as an ongoing issue needing attention.
In late May, a Helldivers 2 community manager had indicated that Arrowhead was actively seeking a resolution for players being kicked by lobby leaders. Just about two months later, that solution is nearly here, ready to improve the gaming experience for those engaging in bug-squashing missions against the Terminid threat.