Co-op third-person shooter Helldivers 2 has a new bug discovered this week (thanks PC Gamer), as the game’s latest big story beat reached its dramatic conclusion: offering mid-air hugs saves lives. Various emotes, when performed while plummeting, will reduce fall damage. And today, the developer’s CEO, Shams Jorjani, has implored his team to leave the error in the game.
The freshly discovered error in the game went very big on Reddit yesterday, as people realized the ridiculous-looking trick could get them out of a bind when they’d otherwise fall to their deaths. It turns out that saluting, offering to shake hands, or even proffering a hug causes characters to go rigid, and thus lose the ragdoll effect when hitting the ground. This, in turn, reduces fall damage and allows people to walk away from what should have been a deadly plunge.
“Pre-death rigor mortis,” was how one Redditor described the trick. Rigor vitae, we’d suggest.
This, as Redditor Adduly observes, is the opposite of reality, where drunk people—far more embracing of their ragdoll when falling—are much more likely to sustain fewer injuries when hitting the ground than those who tense up.
Others pointed out how much this looks like the Norwegian sport of døds diving (death diving):
What’s important is that it works. And it’s silly. And for that reason, it deserves to be preserved, with many in the Helldivers 2 community hoping that developer Arrowhead isn’t going to fix it. They should, obviously, because it’s their game not working properly. But also they shouldn’t.
So agrees Shams Jorjani, who took over as CEO of Arrowhead in May this year. Taking to Twitter (informally X), he quoted unofficial Helldivers account Helldivers Alerts’ report of the bug, adding, “Can we please, please keep this?” tagging in his own company.
In response to someone down-thread, Jorjani insisted that the bug/feature needs to remain. “We’ll add inflatable bouncy bags that deploy from under your arm pits or some shit if we have to. c’mon! we have the technology.”
Someone else suggests that as CEO, he should just give the order to keep the emoting trick, not let the team have a choice. “What a terrible way to run a gaming studio filled with smart & creative people,” he replied.
This new trick is only a day old at this point, so it’ll be interesting to see if Arrowhead fixes the bug, leaves it in, or leans in by making it a more deliberate feature.
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