Helldivers 2 Update 8.0: Utility Belt, Jump Pack and Hellbomb Changes
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| Author Games & Culture
Arrowhead has named six changes for the next major Helldivers 2 update, due in early December, and the one most players will notice lets a Jump Pack coexist with a two-handed weapon. The studio listed them in its November 10, 2026 Developer Blog, next to an apology about the October roadmap and a ruling on mods after the Easy Anti-Cheat switch.
Content
Changes Arrowhead says are locked in
The blog introduces the list as changes already locked in for the early December release, and its roadmap section calls that release Update 8.0. It says these are “some of the changes”, so the table below is a floor and not the full patch.
| Change | What the blog says |
|---|---|
| Packs and two-handed items | Jump, Hover and Warp packs become usable while you carry two-handed items. That was not possible before, and Arrowhead says it opens new loadout combinations. |
| Hellbomb backpack | You can arm it, or pick it up from the ground, with a long press on interact. |
| Gas clouds | No gas cloud will slow a Helldiver down any more. |
| Utility belt | A new accessory holds small handheld items such as remotes and detonators next to a support weapon, so they stop occupying your hands or backpack. Arrowhead says the Solo Silo and the C4 become much easier to use, and you can still throw your sample pouch. |
| Terminal puzzles | New puzzles are being added. The studio frames them as a reply to enemies that were learning from watching Helldivers solve the old ones. |
| SEAF and bunkers | SEAF soldiers can open bunkers alongside you. |
The fix that will miss December
Earlier this year Arrowhead said a strike team was working on Hellpod steering and on Stratagem ball targeting and bouncing. The new designs have been in active development since Devoid of Liberty (Update 7.2) shipped and are being playtested internally. Arrowhead expects them to miss the next major update, though it calls its confidence high and says the wait should not be much longer.
What the roadmap got wrong
The second roadmap was built around patch release dates, not around when content reaches the game. Patches land roughly six weeks apart, so Update 7.2 arrived on October 20 and its content unfolds over the following six weeks until Update 8.0.
The blog also corrects the “new biome” line in the October section. What shipped is caves, first previewed with Into The Unjust, adapted to work across more biomes. Terminid infestations can now occur on all non-ice planets and can turn into new hive worlds if nobody liberates them quickly. Arrowhead apologizes for the wording and promises that the next roadmap will show the effect of player feedback.
Our guide to the Noxious Terminids and bug caves covers the enemy side of 7.2.
| Date (2026) | Event |
|---|---|
| October 20 | Update 7.2 (Devoid of Liberty) releases |
| October 29 | Patch 7.2.2, per the Steam announcement |
| November 10 | Developer Blog: November 2026 |
| November 11 | Hotfix 7.2.3 |
| Early December | Update 8.0, per the blog, no exact date |
Mods and Easy Anti-Cheat
Arrowhead says it added Easy Anti-Cheat for one reason, which is fewer cheaters in your missions, and admits that some PC players lost fan-made mods in the process. The studio draws a hard line between two kinds. Gameplay mods alter game code or game memory, can crash you and the rest of your lobby, and are described as indistinguishable from an attempt to cheat, so accounts running them may be banned. Cosmetic mods are not officially supported, but the code changes had also disabled some of them, and Arrowhead adjusted that.
For cosmetic mods the blog gives four steps to run after the hotfix. Reinstall the game if mods were installed before. Verify the game files through Steam, then start the game and confirm it runs normally. Finally, add mods one at a time and verify the files again to find which ones work. Virtual machines are a separate problem: since the last update they can no longer reach the game, and Arrowhead is working with players who filed support tickets.
Hotfix 7.2.3 on November 11
| Area | Fix |
|---|---|
| Community feedback | Certain cosmetic mods can function again |
| Crash | Receiving status effects such as poison or gas in Hive World caves |
| Crash | Exiting the game |
| Crash | Boot when the game had issues writing permissions on Windows |
| Fire | Fire did not work and could not spread inside caves |
| Level generation | Large assets could spawn outside Hive World caves and block mission progress and Stratagem call-in |
The blog had promised this hotfix would also fix an Easy Anti-Cheat related client crash. The 7.2.3 notes on Steam list three crash fixes and none is labeled that way, so the notes do not confirm that fix.
Checked on November 14, 2026 against the Helldivers 2 Steam announcements of November 10 and November 11. The exact date of Update 8.0 and the full list of its changes are unconfirmed.
Image: Steam store screenshot, Helldivers 2 (Arrowhead Game Studios).
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