Helldivers 2 Switches to Easy Anti-Cheat in Update 7.2.0

Helldivers 2 moved from GameGuard to Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) on October 20, 2026, and Arrowhead says some mods may stop working because of it. The switch shipped with Update 7.2.0, which also brings weapon and stratagem balance changes, a new Game Master-controlled bile bug strain, and a long list of crash and performance fixes.

Arrowhead explained the change in a Steam post. It said its GameGuard integration “wasn’t as effective as it could have been,” and that it chose EAC because it is an industry standard used in more than 200 games. The studio also said it is adding more security measures against cheat mods that have been circulating recently.

The practical effect for PC players is that mods affecting other people’s games, the ones that give an advantage or tamper with the Galactic War, “may no longer function.” Harmless cosmetic mods could break too until their authors update them. If you think EAC is blocking a mod that does no harm, Arrowhead asks you to contact its support on Zendesk. The studio won’t say which mods are safe, only that using them is at your own discretion.

The FAQ answers the two questions most PC players will have. EAC adds no new hardware requirements, and Steam Deck and Linux play is unchanged.

What else is in Update 7.2.0

The 7.2.0 patch notes lean heavily on balance. Arrowhead boosted the base stats of the Killzone and Halo legendary warbond weapons because they can’t be customized. The M90A Shotgun’s damage goes from 605 to 726, for example, and the StA-52 Assault Rifle gets a spare magazine, up from 6 to 7, plus much lower recoil. The PLAS-39 Accelerator Rifle reloads in 2.7 seconds instead of 3.3.

Sickle variants fire sooner after the trigger is pulled, 0.33 seconds instead of 0.5. Light-penetration shotguns hit harder, so the SG-8 Punisher rises from 405 to 486 damage. Among stratagems, the M-1000 Maxigun regains movement the moment you release the trigger, the CQC-20 Breaching Hammer carries 10 charges instead of 7, and the Orbital Airburst Strike’s cooldown drops from 100 to 90 seconds.

The bug strain that spawns Bile Warriors, Spewers and Scavengers used to turn on at random. It is now its own strain controlled by the Game Masters, with a visual marker like Rupture or Spore Burst.

On performance, Arrowhead says multithreaded improvements target smoother frame pacing, especially on lower core-count CPUs and the Xbox Series S. PC players also get less hitching from shader compilation, and the notes list fixes for several crashes, including ones tied to upscalers and DirectX 12 stability.

If you’re after the new guns from the Scope of Authority release, our Scope of Authority Warbond guide covers what’s in it.

Moving to EAC is the bigger story. Helldivers 2 is a co-op game where one cheater can ruin a squad’s mission, and Arrowhead is openly tying the change to protecting the shared war effort, not just individual lobbies. The trade-off is collateral damage for modders, and the first week will show how many harmless cosmetic mods survive. If your favorite skin mod breaks, check with its author before assuming it’s gone for good.

Edited by Kerwin Stewart, Editor-in-Chief · How we report