Helldivers 2’s Boosters Should Go the Route of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s Pictos

Helldivers 2 recently released primary weapon customization with options for attachment variation and colorway palette swaps in time for players to enjoy a new branch of progression while they engaged in the Battle of Super Earth. Helldivers 2’s live-service ambitions have been lofty and could surely see post-launch support for years depending on how much content Arrowhead has planned, though one feature has been back-burned and is in need of reevaluation sooner rather than later if it’s going to have any stake in future Premium Warbonds, let alone mission-to-mission gameplay.

It’s lovely to see new customization and progression in Helldivers 2, and yet a cornerstone of gameplay has been stagnant for quite a while with no reprieve in sight. As it stands, Helldivers 2’s boosters are in a dire predicament that isn’t likely to change unless there’s a massive rework. If any game in recent memory might provide a favorable solution, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 could have a lesson or two to teach Helldivers 2 in terms of its approach to pictos and how stats weighed against perks can facilitate a critical decision-making process.

Helldivers 2: Why the Fate of Melee Weapons May Be Sealed

Melee weapons are officially a part of Helldivers 2, but beyond a fun gimmick here and there they may never amount to much more.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s Pictos are a Whirlwind of Character Perks

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s pictos are essentially skills that players loot or purchase and must equip. Each character is only given three slots available for pictos, but lumina points allow them to inherit a wealth of other pictos.

The key difference between pictos and lumina is that players receive the stat boosts attributed to equipped pictos, while lumina only provides pictos’ skills. Therefore, as long as players divvy colours of lumina tactfully, they can have as many high-tier pictos as they’d like and weigh their options for which pictos should be equipped, whether they have a demanding lumina cost or a remarkable stat that would be a waste to disregard.

The menuing for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s lumina is admittedly a bit unintuitive, especially with pictos requiring varying amounts of lumina and how often players mix-and-match them on every character they have in their party. Plus, in order to unlock pictos in the lumina menu for the party to allot points toward, players must first have those pictos equipped on a character for four encounters.

Helldivers 2’s Boosters Desperately Need an Intervention

The booster economy in Helldivers 2 grows increasingly dire with each new one added to the game. New boosters are simultaneously debuted and discarded by a majority of the playerbase because there are already four indisputably superior boosters that are rarely ever substituted for anything else beyond a niche circumstance.

But, if Helldivers 2’s boosters were tweaked to work somewhat similarly to Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s pictos, any number of boosters could be made far more alluring. Giving boosters arbitrary yet compelling stats could help incentivize the use of one over another and potentially shift the booster landscape for the better.

Choosing a booster for its stats rather than its perk would be great if the stats were applied to all squadmates, too, so that not bringing a booster for its skill wouldn’t be detrimental to players’ success.

As it stands, Helldivers 2’s boosters are in a dire predicament that isn’t likely to change unless there’s a massive rework.

It’d be fascinating to see how this would affect Helldivers 2 as a multiplayer game versus how pictos work in the single-player Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, though adding a lumina-like menu for additional boosters might be overkill and sacrifice the inherent simplicity that boosters have. Either way, Helldivers 2 is going to need some semblance of reassessment before current or future boosters will actually rival the unmatched significance of Vitality Enhancement, Stamina Enhancement, Hellpod Space Optimization, and Experimental Infusion.