Players should not focus on using the best gear.
Recently, the developers of Helldivers 2 released a new blog, Democratic Conversation. This time, Design Director Niklas Malmberg decided to discuss the meta.
Some Helldivers 2 players find the most powerful weapons in the patch and then start demanding that others also choose the most effective gear — this leads to disputes in the community:
We are starting to notice a division within the community. Some players say, “No, we play like this, and all other weapons and equipment are not up to par. The more such “divisions” appear, the more the player base splits. They start arguing with each other.
Obsession with using only the “best weapons” leads to all matches in Helldivers 2 looking the same:
We had this at the very beginning with the railgun. There were conversations like: “What, you didn’t take the railgun?” . And then you were kicked out of the lobby because “You took the wrong gear.” [If you only use meta weapons], then for you the arsenal is no longer a large box of tools, but a small one — and you quickly get bored. And in this case, such players may say: “Well, then improve everything else so that I can play with other weapons.”
According to Niklas, the constant pursuit of the meta is detrimental to the community and may eventually turn it into a toxic swamp.
