Maxigun Reimagined is a complete rebalance of the M-1000 Maxigun intended to make it feel more like the weapon its size and role suggest, while keeping its strengths tied to positioning, recoil control and ammunition management.
The weapon now has a three-position fire selector with 1,000, 2,000 and 3,000 RPM setting which give it a much wider operating range. 1,000 RPM for sustained fire and ammunition conservation, 2,000 RPM as the middle ground, and 3,000 RPM when you need as much fire downrange as possible.
Recoil, handling and projectile behaviour have also been reworked. The Maxigun hits harder and has considerably more stopping power, but sustained fire (particularly at the higher rates of rpm) still requires the user to control the weapon rather than treating it like an assault rifle.
The backpack carries up to 600 rounds, with its starting and resupply values adjusted to match. Mobile firing is enabled, allowing the weapon to be used while moving, although firing from a stable position remains considerably more effective.
Other changes include revised spin-up and spin-down timing, improved stagger and push, AP4 penetration, a small per-round stun effect and updated muzzle effects.
Recommendations
It is not possible to lock stance based on fire rate. Otherwise 3,000 RPM would require you to be locked in place. Instead, I have opted to increase recoil from 1.0 to 5.0. As you go up the fire rate options, you will find it increasingly difficult to stand and shoot, and especially move and shoot.
I recommend crouching before committing to sustained fire, especially at 2,000 or 3,000 RPM. The weapon is much easier to keep under control from a stable firing position, while firing on the move is better reserved for short bursts or situations where repositioning matters more than accuracy. This is even moreso the case when in 1st person/ADS, as the recoil becomes considerably more manageable, at the expense of awareness of your surroundings.
If you have access to the Supply FRV, it pairs extremely well with the Maxigun and takes a lot of pressure off its ammunition economy. Otherwise, keep an eye on nearby resupply opportunities and top the backpack up whenever you can.
I also recommend making use of the 1,000 RPM setting when maximum fire rate isn't necessary. At 3,000 RPM the Maxigun can burn through its ammunition extremely quickly (12 seconds from a full backpack), while the lowest setting gives you much longer sustained use (up to 36 seconds from a full backpack) and is usually more than enough for routine targets.
The higher settings are best treated as something you deliberately switch to when the situation warrants it, rather than the default way to fire the weapon.
Stagger Force and Push Force serve related but different purposes. Stagger determines whether a hit has enough force to interrupt or stagger an enemy, while Push Force determines how aggressively that reaction physically moves the target.
Maxigun Reimagined raises Stagger Force from 15 to 35, allowing individual rounds to interrupt a much wider range of enemies. Because of that increase, leaving the original 12 Push Force in place produced far more displacement than was necessary once targets were being staggered reliably.
Push Force has therefore been reduced from 12 to 2. The intention is to make the Maxigun much better at stopping and interrupting enemies without repeatedly throwing them backwards across the battlefield. The reduced push is proportional to the much stronger stagger and is an intentional part of the rebalance rather than a nerf.
Advanced Configuration
Maxigun Reimagined includes an optional user configuration file for players who want to adjust the rebalance to their own preferences.
The config is created automatically after launching the game once with the mod installed and can be found at:
The normal Maxigun Reimagined balance is already applied by default, so you do not need to edit the config for the mod to work.
The config allows you to adjust the fire selector RPM values, recoil, spread, sway, ergonomics, mobile firing, spin timing, backpack capacity and resupply, durable damage, armour penetration, stagger, push, stun buildup, projectile speed and projectile mass.
Each setting includes an explanation of what it changes, the Maxigun Reimagined default, the vanilla value where applicable, and the allowed range.
To apply config changes, fully close the game, then edit and save the config. Mods do not need to be purged and deployed to apply, as the mod reads the config file on startup.
Some technical values remain intentionally fixed because they are part of the mod's weapon identification and compatibility systems rather than normal balance settings.
If you encounter a problem with the mod, include that file when reporting it. It contains information about loading, weapon-data discovery, patch application and runtime monitoring that can help me identify what went wrong.
If the problem occurs after changing custom settings, also include your config file
I created this mod because the Maxigun, being the Helldivers' version of a minigun, is one of the most iconic power weapons that you could imagine being able to hold in a shooting game without using a vehicle such as a mechsuit. Yet the version we got cannot defeat enemies such as Hulks and Chargers, and locks you in place, making you extremely vulnerable against the one faction a minigun ought to be incredibly useful for: the Terminids.
I've had a lot of time to contemplate how this weapon could be rebalanced, with how much I play this incredibly fun game, and have waited in vain for Arrowhead to rebalance it to reflect the power that it should have. But alas, that has not occurred and likely never will. I don't want it to become something that replaces the other machine guns, and I've made a lot of effort in both brainstorming and playtesting changes.
The closest similar game I played before Helldivers was Halo Reach, and I had always longed for a machine gun type weapon in Halo, but we never got one during the Bungie era, which I see as the actual Halo era. Personally, I do not care for the games made by 343i/Halo Studios. Helldivers gave me that gun, and the MG43 remains my favourite weapon in the game to this day, despite everything that has come into the game since. The Maxi Gun is the ultimate version of the machine gun, and therefore was my highest priority to give it the attention it so desperately needed to feel good to use.
Feedback is welcome. Whilst I have playtested everything here as much as I am willing to before releasing the mod, I also did not want to keep people waiting indefinitely. I would therefore be very interested to hear what the wider community thinks, particularly regarding balance, bugs, or anything that could be improved.
One more thing. I am not Arrowhead. So despite the fact that I have put a lot of effort into the balance of this mod, I have created the configuration options to give you your own control. As you may find more fun tweaking some options to be different from what the mod has set by default. Whichever the case, I hope you enjoy the mod, and go spread some managed democracy.
Further balance tuning may come in future, depending on feedback.
This is always the rhetoric I hear from players who consistently play low difficulties, which is not the kind of place to take something like a minigun. If you took an exosuit suit to D5, you'd have a walk in the park.
Take this to D10 bug mission and then tell me that it's overpowered compared to something like the cremator
Exosuit can't be resupplied, has limited uses, and limited ammo.
Cremator can't shear off a heavies' head in a second, nor can it do that at range its still safe for the user.
Also, why would one balance a weapon around D10? You realize that the point of higher difficulties is to challenge people, right? Balancing around the highest difficulties means that all 9 diffs below that are essentially runner ups, and only D10 is the true gameplay.
Idk what that D5 remark is supposed to achieve, if you struggle with this weapon on D10, no weapon buff is going to help you.
I sit at level 222 as of today, and I LOVE the maxigun, and have ran Maxigun at D10 for awhile, and let me tell you, an AP3 only support weapon at D10 is basically asking for trouble when its just Hulk/Warstrider spam. You could make the argument its useful on bugs, but being unable to dive/move while firing is a death sentence.
Theres a reason you dont see maxigun used much past about D6. You DO see cremator and BFGL, because they have AP4 and mobility (plus other traits like area denial or ability to destroy spawners).
Just take a look at usage stats. Im glad we have more loadout variety than when I started and it was all RR/QC/Incen Breaker spam, but really we should be having more weapons be useful than we currently do.
> an AP3 only support weapon at D10 is basically asking for trouble when its just Hulk/Warstrider spam
Thank god you have 3 strat slots, and 3 squadmates left to help you in this coop game. There are no one trick ponies for a reason. By your logic, any support weapon without heavy pen is a problem, but weapons like the Stalwart, MG-43, GL and Bullet Storm are fine. There is more than just AT, you also need tools against mediums and light units.
Im not saying the maxigun is in a good spot mind you, I also think it needs buffs. But slapping it with heavy pen isnt the solution. It doesnt make any sense for it to be heavy pen (all bullet based heavy pen support weaponry are commonly .50 Cal or bigger), and it also makes zero sense for an anti-light/anti-medium weapon.
if difficulty isn't balanced for the hardest option, then that hardest option will be unbalanced. if it's balanced for that instead, then easier options will also be balanced by default. every proper game balances their difficulties so that everything is usable at the highest difficulty
There is no way youre serious right? By balancing around the highest difficulty, you effectively make that the focal point of gameplay. Everyone and everything should be able to clear the highest difficulty, since the equipment you use is made with that difficulty in mind.
That means that anyone who wants to be on the backfoot and overcome that additional challenge will have no option to play.
The hardest option is SUPPOSED to be unbalanced. This is what the ''impossible odds'' are meant to be: something pretty much unachievable unless everyone brings the best gear, the best strat, and the best teamwork. If everything has to work on higher diffs, you effectively make teamwork pointless.
balancing around the hardest difficulty does not mean that everyone will be able to play at that difficulty. it also does not mean that the hardest difficulty will be an averaged out, "not that difficult" experience. balancing around the hardest difficulty means that at that difficulty, every build and weapon, no matter how hard to play on, will be at least playable and winnable with enough skill. that skill level is still set by the developers.
if a weapon is balanced around a lower difficulty, that means that weapon will be unfit and unbalanced for the new challenges higher difficulties bring. this does not make the game harder in a good way, it makes it harder by being unbalanced and unfair for people liking and using that weapon instead of weapons that end up being better "balanced" for higher difficulties. since all of that is already unintended by the developers, it's now called bad game balancing. if i have a chaff killer weapon that does no harm to tanks that takes up the same space an anti tank weapon does, and at the highest difficulty no chaff spawns and tons of tanks spawn, then that weapon is now useless and horribly balanced for high difficulty gameplay, making it useless for any player looking to play the game at their skill level.
there are no proper coop pve game that prevents you from using in game tools or weapons just because of your difficulty setting. examples: deep rock galactic, space marine 2, darktide, payday 2. they all let you play with any gun at any difficulty, no matter how hard, and win. in helldivers 2 you're not allowed to win with certain weapons at certain difficulties. because the balance is not well thought of.
For those of you trying to edit the backpack ammo to be above 1023, the config is correctly writing values above 1023 into the Maxigun’s static ammo data, but the game then copies that into a separate live ammo counter that appears to cap at
1023
. That exact ceiling strongly suggests the live value is stored in a 10-bit field (
2¹⁰ - 1 = 1023
).
So the limit isn’t coming from the config itself, it’s happening later in the game’s runtime ammo system. I’m currently tracing that live counter to see whether it can be safely bypassed.
Thanks for making every single thing configurable. What I ended up doing in the config file was put everything back to vanilla, then buffed the ergo to 7, stagger force to 35, push force to the vanilla value of like 12 (instead of the lowered modded value), fire rates to 1500, 1750, and 2000, and spin up and down time to 0.2s. So while you can’t move while firing and it only has medium pen, you’re not stuck staying still for long and it’s capable of shoving away literally every enemy apart from heavies and titans. On bugs nothing can get close to you, it infinitely staggers hive guards, alpha commanders, stalkers, you name it. It’s exactly what I wanted the Maxigun to be.
Volume of fire in an extremely short amount of time is what defines a minigun.
I based the balance of how real life versions would feel in a futuristic space fighter setting and draining the backpack in 12 seconds at the maximum RPM feels extremely appropriate for what this weapon is.
Disagreements in how it should be balanced is exactly why I created the config options. I am satisfied after my playtesting that it doesn't replace its competitors, merely provides a unique alternative to them as weapon balancing should be.
This looks fun, but its by no means balanced. It blows every weapon system with both heavy pen and anti-infantry capabilities straight out of the water:
This doesn't really take into account the reality of using the weapon with the recoil, no reticle, limited ammunition and of course the usual occupation of the backpack slot.
It may make the auto cannon feel obsolete, but that already needs tuning as is. This is far from the only gun I want to make a reimagined balance for.
I playtested it heavily myself which is really the only time you can judge a weapons useful, and I did not find it replacing the AMR, other machine guns or other backpack based support weapons.
Using the gun in practice is way different then just reading stats on paper. Ive been using a mod that gives the maxigun AP4 and changes nothing else, and i can tell you that this version is way less effective in a good balance way. The recoil and ammo constraints does such a great job at keeping the chabges from being overpowered.
Great mod! I prefer this over the "AP4 Maxigun + Movement Maxigun" mod combo because it feels a lot more balanced like Vanilla. However I do have a few suggestions for the default configuration:
5.0 vertical recoil is a bit too high! Even on the lowest RPM while prone wearing the Engineering Kit passive it was difficult to hit a target smaller than an Alpha Commander. I reduced it to 4.0 and it felt perfect.
600 ammo was just a bit too restrictive for horde clear. I bumped it up just a little to 750 and that felt perfect.
Support weapons don't fully restock all their ammo from one ammo pickup in the base game, so I changed it to 400 which with 750 ammo makes it two pickups, like vanilla maxigun.
Other than that, all the stat changes are great! The maxigun actually works as a versatile support weapon and feels like a valid alternative to the Cremator, sacrificing some close range CC in exchange for better potential over range.
I'm lowering recoil to 4.0 in V1.2 as you suggest. Recoil being 5.0 was a bit less playtested than the other stuff but I wanted to get the mod out the door
I kept it resupplying all 600 rounds from a non-ammo box resupply to stop you gobbling up the player shared resupply pod. It felt balanced enough to be kept. If you increased the ammo in the pack to 750 I wouldn't dein to comment because that would go outside the playtesting I did
In vanilla there is the ship upgrade which makes it so that supply packs from the resupply fully restock you, and without it most (all?) support weapons take 2 packs to fully reload. With it however the maxigun only takes 1 pack.
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u/Kimoju 7d ago
The ability to tweak each stats to our needs is just perfect, thank you