Arrowhead Game Studios posted a new Steam update for Helldivers 2 on November 3, introducing the Noxious strain of Terminids along with cave networks that now run beneath more biomes across the galaxy.
According to the post, Noxious Scavengers are "noticeably quicker" than their regular cousins, and every bite delivers a deadly dose of poison, while the Ministry of Truth warns that every planet may have a hive beneath it.
For anyone catching up, Arrowhead implemented Easy Anti-Cheat in patch 7.2.0 on October 20, and Steam reviews went from 14% negative before this story began to 74% negative by the time the previous article in this story ran.
Since then, the official posts have been an October 22 hotfix for a crash when another player joined or left the squad, an October 29 patch that cut the AMW-20 APEX caliber from 60 to 20, and now the bug announcement – none of which revisit the anti-cheat change itself.
The review data shows how that is landing, with 1,667 negative reviews against 265 positive on October 20 alone, and 480 negative against 205 positive over the last 3 days, which is 70% negative.
Even November 3, the day of the new Terminid post, logged 103 negative reviews to 40 positive.
Players say the problem is the anti-cheat rollout, and one reviewer with 285.7 hours wrote "Not only should we change the Anti-Cheat on and PVE game." before adding that the implementation left players unable to even boot the game.
Another reviewer with 1,553.3 hours says players made mods to fix bugs that went unaddressed for years, and claims the new anti-cheat blocks those players while doing nothing against actual cheaters.
A reviewer with 716.1 hours summed up the mood more bluntly: "For those who just want the TLDR, Helldivers 2 is dying and this is due to Arrowhead's malicious laziness."
The bugs got a venomous new strain; the anti-cheat complaints got another week of silence.
If you were hoping for word on launch problems or the mods players relied on, the November 3 post offers neither.
Steam reviews, day by day
| Day (UTC) | Positive | Negative | Negative share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-10-25 | 109 | 264 | 71% |
| 2026-10-26 | 117 | 281 | 71% |
| 2026-10-27 | 119 | 354 | 75% |
| 2026-10-28 | 103 | 314 | 75% |
| 2026-10-29 | 118 | 226 | 66% |
| 2026-10-30 | 93 | 189 | 67% |
| 2026-10-31 | 76 | 210 | 73% |
| 2026-11-01 | 101 | 184 | 65% |
| 2026-11-02 | 64 | 193 | 75% |
| 2026-11-03 | 40 | 103 | 72% |
The story so far
- 2026-10-27: Arrowhead Game Studios Deploys Easy Anti-Cheat, Players Flood Steam With Negatives
- 2026-10-29: Arrowhead Patches A Sniper Rifle, Says Nothing About Helldivers 2 Anti-Cheat Backlash
Sources: Helldivers 2 on Steam (user reviews), Helldivers 2 developer announcements. Figures checked 2026-11-03 14:21 UTC.
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