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Helldivers 2 has been remarkably successful and captured that Starship Troopers imagination of gamers while remaining seemingly able to avoid some of the toxicity of other online co-op games.
Like all of these types of games, although this differs from some by not being a free game, there is a Battle Pass system that rewards your actions with pretty cosmetics and new weapons. Think Call of Duty / Warhammer 40k Darktide.
Where Helldrivers 2, which recently got a new patch changing things up a bit, differs from pretty much all of the other games with Battle Passes however is it is not an egregious cash grab, and you can pretty much earn everything the game has to offer by just playing it. More of that later. First let’s look at the different Battle Passes, which are called Warbonds here, to see what’s going on.
Helldivers 2 Warbonds
Helldivers 2 currently has three Warbonds, assumingly this will change over time as people complete them but for now, we get the free tier and two Premium Tiers which cost 1,000 each of the in-game currency, Super Credits
The free Warbond is called Helldivers Mobilize!, while the Premium tiers are Steeled Veterans and Cutting Edge. These two Warbonds contain different weapons and cosmetics from the free tier, and despite a few people saying the Premium weapons are better and therefore you can accuse Helldivers 2 of being Pay-to-Win, we don’t really agree with that as the weapons in the free tier are pretty similar in stats, and Helldivers 2 is a Player v Environment (PvE) game anyway so better guns give you no advantage over other players.
The way the Warbonds work is that as you play you are awarded medals which you can then spend in the Warbond of your choosing. The free tier has 10 pages of goodies but you have to ‘spend’ a set number of medals before you get access to the next page – you can’t just go to Page 10 and hoover up the best stuff at the start. There are a lot of games you are going to need to play before you get that far.
The Premium tier Warbonds have fewer pages but arguably cooler-looking gear.

Should you buy the Helldivers 2 battle pass?
This is where kudos needs to go to the devs and publishers here because, yes there is a battle pass and yes you can buy it, but you probably don’t need to. Super Credits are generously awarded as you play through the free tier so, as long as you don’t spend them on other things (there is a cosmetics shop as well), you will probably soon get the 1,000 Super Credits you need to unlock a Premium Battle Pass, which then gives you access to more free Super Credits so you can eventually unlock the third one.
So why purchase a Warbond? Well obviously time is one reason if you want access to the other gear but aren’t able to put in hour after hour, and also to support the devs. Now anybody who knows me and reads my articles will know I am not a fan, to say the least, of the corporate gaming world who just rip off players, but when a company does good things they should be backed and supported by us, if only to encourage them to continue doing it. Battle Pass money will go directly into future development which can only be a good thing.
How to buy a Helldivers 2 Warbond
There seem to be a lot of people out there confused as to how to actually purchase a Premium Tier Warbond which is weird because it is so obvious. However, what is also weird is I also struggled to work out at first how to do it, even though it is so obvious. So this section is for those of you, like me, who missed the giant Buy Premium Warbond button in the bottom right of the screen when you are on one of them.
It’s so strange, these days I can’t not see it, but judging from threads on Reddit and the volume of searches of the subject, for some UI-related reason, a lot of us are missing the button. Anyway. Click on a Warbond and a button appears in the bottom right corner. You can swear all you want that it has never been there before, but it has. Told you it was weird.
The post How to buy the Warbond Battle Pass in Helldivers 2 and is it worth it? appeared first on ReadWrite.

A major earthquake in Taiwan has reportedly disrupted production at its semiconductor factories, raising the possibility of repercussions within the tech sector.
The island plays a critical role in manufacturing advanced chips due to its longstanding investment in the field. The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), in particular, is renowned for its advanced manufacturing processes, capable of producing chips with small transistors, essential for high performance and energy efficiency in today’s electronics.

Today I thought I was going to die in Taiwan earthquake. I ran down stairs from 24 floor, some walls breaking around me. And Taipei was light compared to East Taiwan
I now believe that YOLO is 100% true
Hope everyone is ok across our beautiful country pic.twitter.com/KcoM0of0GK
— Matt W (@helpfulmatt) April 3, 2024

However, a 7.4 magnitude earthquake, the largest in the past 25 years, has already resulted in the deaths of seven people, with hundreds injured. Numerous buildings also collapsed, and the aftershocks have triggered landslides across the island’s east coast.

A major earthquake with a magnitude of 7.4 just struck off Taiwan, not only halting the THSR trains but also causing sudden damage in many areas.
Hope everyone is safe! pic.twitter.com/nhdco0JabT
— 王定宇 Wang Ting-yu, MP (@MPWangTingyu) April 3, 2024

TSMC chip production suspended amid earthquake
TSMC, the world’s largest maker of advanced chips for customers like Apple Inc. and Nvidia Corp., evacuated staff and halted production due to the earthquake. In 2023, the company said it manufactured over 16 million 12-inch silicon wafers at four facilities, referred to as “fabs,” in Taiwan, and also manages additional plants dedicated to producing smaller chips. The Economist reports that Taiwan produced over 60% of the world’s semiconductors and over 90% of the most advanced chips in 2023.
According to Bloomberg, the fabs are ”vulnerable to even the slightest tremors,” a passing vibration can wreck whole batches of semiconductors. “Preventative measures were initiated according to procedure and some fabs were evacuated,” the company said in a statement provided to Nikkei Asia. “All personnel are safe, and those evacuated are beginning to return to their workplaces. The company is currently confirming the details of the impact.”
TSMC added that it had “decided to suspend work at construction sites [for new facilities] for today, and work will resume following further inspections.”
A manager from a TSMC equipment supplier said there were discussions about whether to assign additional staff to work overtime during the forthcoming Tomb-Sweeping holidays later this week. This measure aims to assist chipmakers in compensating for the recent disruptions.
Sources within TSMC disclosed that several wafers had cracked at the Hsinchu factories and that certain machinery had been shut down. Consequently, many anticipate working through the holidays to address these issues.
In Taiwan’s stock market, the Taiex Weighted Index experienced a decline right after the market opened. It saw a drop of up to 0.96% throughout the trading day and ultimately closed with a decrease of 0.63%.
Featured image: Canva / Briáxis F. Mendes
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Helldivers 2 fans can quite literally take their gameplay to the next level thanks to a long-awaited feature in the latest update.
Already ranked as one of the most popular games of 2024, Helldivers 2 has taken the gaming community by storm since its release on February 8, 2024. Over eight million copies have sold worldwide, with hundreds of thousands of people taking on the Automatons and Terminids every day, fighting with futuristic weapons in the name of democracy.
A product of Arrowhead Game Studios, Helldivers 2 has already had one minor update since its launch but the real upgrade to content has now come in the most recent update. As well as correcting balance issues, the long-awaited level cap is now finally here.
What is a level cap?
A level cap refers to the maximum attainable level of the playable character, most commonly seen in role-playing or fighting games like Helldivers 2. Level caps are often raised in subsequent playthroughs or expansion packs/downloadable content, once game developers get a sense of where the next level should be based on existing gameplay.
In the case of Helldivers 2, some high-achieving players have been stuck at the same point for some time now, with no room to continue pushing themselves to higher levels within the game. Previously, players were capped out at 50 but this has now been increased.
The cooperative third-person shooter is centered around personal progression. Experience points, referred to in-game as XP, are the building blocks to progress within Helldivers 2. The more you level up, the more new weapons and game-changing stratagems you can unlock. Each action you take in a mission, from completing objectives to defeating enemies, contributes to your XP total and helps you advance through the game.
The update also included some general fixes, as well as balance changes to missions, stratagems, weapons, enemies and Helldivers.
Featured image: PlayStation
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Solana (SOL) briefly crossed the $200 mark on Sunday night, marking only the second time it has reached this threshold since 2021. This follows Solana decentralized exchange (DEX) volume recently overtaking the volume observed on Ethereum (ETH) DEXs.
The rally was short-lived, as the cryptocurrency retreated to around $190 on Monday. To set a new all-time high, Solana would need to climb to approximately $260, according to data from CoinGecko.
After months of stagnation following the collapse of FTX, Solana’s ecosystem has seen a resurgence in interest, driven by airdrops and memecoin speculation. The cross-chain messaging protocol Wormhole is set to release its W token, with a portion of the supply unlocking on the Solana blockchain. This anticipated airdrop has contributed to the increased activity on the network.
Airdrop allocation farming has played a role in the steady growth of Solana’s DeFi ecosystem. The total value locked in Solana’s DeFi protocols has been on an upward trajectory since mid-November, currently sitting at around $4.6 billion, as reported by DeFiLlama.
Solana has also experienced a significant increase in stablecoin volume, processing more than $100 billion in USDT and USDC transfers on multiple days last week, according to data from Blockworks Research.
Memecoins have become the latest trend in the Solana ecosystem, with platforms like DEX Screener enabling users to speculate on new tokens such as Slerf. This phenomenon has sparked a debate within the crypto community, with influential figures like Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin weighing in on the purpose and potential of memecoins.
Institutional interest in Solana rising
Institutional interest in Solana has also been on the rise. Grayscale’s Solana Trust (GSOL) has seen its market price climb for three consecutive weeks, with its net asset value per share nearing its highest point since the product began trading in April 2023.
Grayscale has also included Solana in its recently launched staking fund, which aims to optimize staking rewards for investors. Other firms, such as 21Shares and VanEck, offer exchange-traded products that provide exposure to the Solana ecosystem.
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Microsoft is expanding its usage into artificial intelligence through a new Xbox AI chatbot. This is in the testing period and can automate support tasks, and help with customer queries and game refunds.
Sources familiar with the plans spoke with The Verge which then prompted the software giant to confirm the rumors with the publication.
The company has confirmed the existence of its chatbot, with the general manager of gaming AI at Xbox, Haiyan Zhang, saying: “We are testing an Xbox Support Virtual Agent, an internal prototype of an animated character that can query Xbox Support topics with voice or text.
“The prototype makes it easier and quicker for players to get help with support topics using natural language, taking information from existing Xbox Support pages.”
The Xbox chatbot will start by asking players questions like ‘How can I help you today?’ and will then be able to respond to support messages including those about a broken console to issues with paid subscriptions.
Microsoft is no stranger to conversational AI bots as they have its own Azure AI Bot Service that companies like Vodafone and Pwc use to build their own support tools. They’ve also been bolstering their AI team with the formation of a new organization called Microsoft AI.
Future of the Xbox platform and hardware
This is expected to be part of a broader push at Microsoft Gaming to bring in AI-powered features to the Xbox platform and developer tools.
Just a couple of months ago, in February, Xbox president Sarah Bond expressed their dedication to bringing more for fans during an official Xbox podcast: “We’ve got more to come…
“There’s some exciting stuff coming out in hardware that we’re going to share this holiday.
“We’re also invested in the next-generation roadmap. What we’re really focused on there is delivering the largest technical leap you will have ever seen in a hardware generation, which makes it better for players and better for creators and the visions that they’re building.”
Featured Image: Photo by Jonathan Kemper on Unsplash
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