Helldivers 2 adds venomous Noxious bugs and spreads Terminid caves to more planets

The bug front in Helldivers 2 just got nastier. The game's latest post introduces a new Terminid strain, the Noxious, whose attacks poison you, and it widens where the underground bug caves can show up.

There are two new enemies. The Noxious Scavenger looks like the ordinary Scavenger but moves faster and bites again almost at once, with poison on every hit. It's fragile, so the post points players towards spread weapons: shotguns, flamethrowers and grenades. The Noxious Spewer is the big one. Unlike the slow Spewers players know, it moves quickly, spits webbing from medium range that stops you sprinting, and has a long, venomous bite. Its head carries medium armour, but the web-filled abdomen has none. Shoot that, though, and it bursts, snaring every Helldiver and bug close by.

Poison now has its own icon on the HUD and two stages. Light poisoning blurs your vision and drains health; heavy poisoning does more damage over time and also takes away sprinting. Stims cure it, which makes them worth sharing out carefully within a squad.

The caves are the other change. They used to turn up on only a few worlds, and can now spawn on more biomes across the galactic map, from deserts to frozen planets. Expect short sightlines and fast enemies inside, which the post says suits the Noxious bugs well.

Helldivers 2 is £34.99 on the PlayStation Store UK. Player numbers on Steam fell in September from August's peak; the full trend is on our Helldivers 2 game page.