Helldivers 2 adds “500+ hours” of progression with its big “s**t your pants” update, and Arrowhead’s CEO wants to know: “What is the pant situation like?”

Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead has been teasing something big for a while now, with the recent hint of “exciting news to come” compounded with the humorous promise made by CEO Shams Jorjani that something in the third-person shooter’s pipeline would make everyone “shit [their] pants.” Today, it’s become apparent what the studio was hinting at with the latest update, and the studio’s boss has been checking in on the “pant situation.”

Jorjani’s promise (arguably, threat) that “you’ll shit your pants” thanks to Helldivers 2 has reached peak meme status in the democracy-loving fanbase over the last couple of weeks, with Reddit going “overboard” by the CEO’s own description. Following the flood of jokes, he acknowledged that Arrowhead had “better deliver,” and it definitely looks like it’s pulled it off.

As well as three new Illuminate enemies to deal with, Helldivers 2’s latest update adds weapon customization for most primary weapons, has removed the rotation of items in the Superstore (everything is simply available all the time now), and has implemented plenty of balance changes, too.

For example, in a new patch notes deep dive video, design director Niklas Malmborg explains that fire damage now “kind of scales with the surface area of the enemy,” making big foes like Chargers take more damage than smaller ones when they’ve been set on fire.

Weapon customization is also a massive deal, and in its own dedicated video, Malmborg says Arrowhead will “continue expanding on it,” as it has “more stuff in store.” It sounds like “maybe in the future,” sidearms and melee weapons might get some love here. Even as things stand, though, some primary weapons have around 20 customizations for you to unlock, which the design director estimates adds “500+ hours” of extra progression to the game.

Considering just how much Arrowhead has added with the update, I couldn’t help but picture a rather satisfied smile on Jorjani’s face when he took to the official Discord server earlier, asking: “What is the pant situation like?”

Loyal Helldivers have delivered, too. Over on Reddit, the game’s subreddit is full of comments ranging from “sweet liberty, my pants!” to “my pants are shitted. Congratulations.”

While others have apologised to the CEO, admitting that “we were not familiar with his game” when the pant soiling jokes took off, some say they’ve had faith all along. “Never doubted the shattening,” one proclaims.

As one fan in Discord requests that “everyone please tell Mr. Jorjani that you shit your pants,” the CEO responds in a way that feels almost too wholesome considering the context. “That one off hand joke really really got out of hand. I love you all.”

Be sure to check out our roundup of all the biggest changes in the Galactic Emergency Helldivers 2 update patch notes.

I’m GamesRadar+’s Deputy News Editor, working alongside the rest of the news team to deliver cool gaming stories that we love. After spending more hours than I can count filling The University of Sheffield’s student newspaper with Pokemon and indie game content, and picking up a degree in Journalism Studies, I started my career at GAMINGbible where I worked as a journalist for over a year and a half. I then became TechRadar Gaming’s news writer, where I sourced stories and wrote about all sorts of intriguing topics. In my spare time, you’re sure to find me on my Nintendo Switch or PS5 playing through story-driven RPGs like Xenoblade Chronicles and Persona 5 Royal, nuzlocking old Pokemon games, or going for a Victory Royale in Fortnite.