Helldivers 2’s Latest Update Secretly Added Shovels to the Game — and Players Are Trying to Unearth the Reason Why

Hot on the heels of Helldivers 2’s latest update, patch 01.002.101, going live, players have noticed developer Arrowhead used it to secretly add a new tool to the game: a shovel.

Players have discovered the shovel as a POI item dotted about the map, and have found they’re able to actually dig into the ground with it to create makeshift cover.

Redditor The_Fighter03 alerted the community to the find with a video clip, below, showing the new shovel in action.

Arrowhead failed to make any mention in today’s update 01.002.101, nor has it explained why shovels are all of a sudden in the game. But fans had wondered whether the patch had more to it than Arrowhead let on, given it weighed in at over 5GB. Perhaps the terrain deformation / dig system now in the game was a big part of that.

Players are now digging into the detail of this new shovel, trying to work out how deep they can go and whether it has any other use. Can it be used to dig under doors, for example? Can players work together to create trenches? The community is having fun working this out.

Meanwhile, Arrowhead announced Helldivers 2’s next premium warbond, dubbed Servants of Freedom. The battle pass due out February 6 adds a portable Hellbomb stratagem and new armor that come with the Integrated Explosives passive, which means that upon death, your corpse will detonate and take out the enemies around you.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.