As Helldivers 2 gets a nice player number bump following "the best patch ever", Arrowhead challenges them to outdo both the bugs and bots

Helldivers 2's much-hyped Patch 1.001.100 dropped yesterday, with enough buffs and tweaks that you might just have finished reading through the patch notes by now. Thus far, plenty of players are flocking back to the game to try it out, and Arrowhead's issued a fresh Major Order to give them something to do other than waxing lyrical about loving the changes.

If you missed the patch's arrival yesterday, or are just getting back into the game after putting it down for a bit, it's well worth checking out our rundown of what it features, including the stuff Arrowhead had announced beforehand.

So, how are the early returns this big shot from Arrowhead at restoring the feeling as part of its ongoing plans for the game? Well, there's been a nice bump in players as folks naturally drop back in to check out the changes, with the current 24-hour Steam peak being just over 68,000 according to SteamDB, up on the recent average that looks to be around 20,000 to 25,000.

Reddit, meanwhile, is full of posts praising the patch in both meme and non-meme format. Some players have even gone as far as saying stuff like "this is honestly the best patch ever" and "the game is now fun and hard!"

"The balance patch has so far, achieved what most believed not possible," wrote the author of that last post, "The feeling of being underpowered against overpowered enemies is gone. Now it's just 4 meat bags unleashing pure mayhem upon its enemies. Ruthless. Nonstop hordes of enemies. I worried some of the buffs would make the game trivial like railgun and small arms now doing damage to heavies, but the way enemy health pools have been reworked make it an actual challenge still."

"I think it's important the community shows some appreciation after the emotional rollercoaster the devs have been through. So many things I've personally been asking to be fixed were fixed," wrote another.

While all this praise and the beginning of what looks to be a cult worshipping the thermite grenade have been happening, Arrowhead's also issued a fresh MO.

"Super Earth High Command has ordered an evaluation of Helldiver Force Readiness, following recent adjustments to fleetwide capabilities," community manager Baskinator wrote, In service of this evaluation, the Helldivers are ordered to conduct open warfare on both the Automaton and Terminid fronts, with the objective of increasing the total number of planets within the Super Earth Federation.

"To succeed in this order, the total number of planets liberated during the order period must exceed that of planets stolen by the enemy. The choice of which planets to prioritize will be left to the strategic expertise of the Helldivers."

So, there you go. Are you loving post-Patch 1.001.100 Helldivers 2? Let us know below!