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While Helldivers 2's latest update is mostly identical across all platforms, its PC version adds an optional, interesting toggle this week that previously sounded impossible: a "slim" installation profile. With this, the combined development efforts of Helldivers creator Arrowhead Studios and Sony support studio Nixxes have seemingly resolved the PC version's ever-ballooning file size.

The shrink is dramatic, dropping the current version's installation total from 152GB to only 22GB - that's a whopping 85.5 percent reduction. And in preliminary tests, DF can confirm that the beta version so far delivers a net win, even for older PCs with slower HDD storage.

Savvy DF readers may wonder about the combination of "shrunken install size" and "Sony PC game," thanks to some of our recent coverage. In diagnosing DirectStorage decompression-stutter issues in Monster Hunter Wilds, we looked back at similar performance-affecting issues in Sony's PC versions of The Last of Us Pt. 1 and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. In another recent Sony example, the larger-install port of God of War: Ragnarok skipped use of DirectStorage decompression and appeared to benefit as a result.

But this is a different matter. HD2's current, massive install size on PC is not apparently due to uncompressed textures. Rather, Arrowhead suggested in an October announcement that its PC version had grown to "roughly three times larger" than its PS5 and Xbox versions as a performance-related measure for older HDD storage solutions.

The developer confirmed at the time that its PC installation by default included duplicate data pools for assets, in order to reduce the seek time needed by platter-based storage to access and load relevant data for a particular level. This classic optimisation tactic dates back to the days of optical storage as a video game's default, when each level had both its generic and level-specific assets placed in proximity to reduce time wasted by a laser bouncing around a disc's full surface.

The same factor applied to HDD seek times as compared to the near-instant access potential of SSDs, so generic assets continued to be duplicated in order to support the PC version's advertised HDD support while HD2's biome and asset variety exploded. A de-duplication pass would cut the install size but also make HD2's loading times on HDD "ten times slower," Arrowhead suggested.

The team's efforts towards efficiencies would continue, the October post suggested, and perhaps the 2,000-plus comments on the thread drove additional effort in that direction immediately. Because Arrowhead has now returned barely two months later with Nixxes's assistance to push a new, opt-in beta that shrinks the install size. This week's development update confirms that Arrowhead's original "ten times slower" estimate was a conservative one based on external data, not on actual HD2 HDD testing.

As it turns out, HD2's loading times are largely tied to level generation, with asset access happening in parallel. This apparently means a de-duplication pass has proven sufficient to shrink install sizes and leave loading times mostly unimpacted, without any mention - or in our tests, obvious signs - of inefficient decompression techniques.

Owing to factors like always-online play and procedurally generated levels, it's tricky to measure exact differences between HD2's slim beta and its existing, larger install default. Our best means of estimating differences comes from its fixed tutorial zone, which admittedly may lack any online-specific optimisations that deliver loading parity between all players. In a co-op session, HD2 levels don't start until all players have reached the same loading percentage - a stated reason for Arrowhead to cautiously introduce this update as an opt-in beta.

We tested HD2's tutorial on a PC with both an M.2 PCI-E 4.0 SSD and a 7200RPM HDD, installing both the default and slim-beta versions on both drives with a fresh GPU driver installation ahead of each test. On the HDD, the tutorial needed 6.3 additional seconds to fully load via the slim installation, taking 43.6 seconds over the default installation's 37.3 seconds - a 16.9 percent increase.

The same drives were then used to load a single-player region in the same planet region and mission type but likely a different proc-gen level in terms of geometry and assets. This means we cannot conclusively determine what it means that the slim beta turned in a slightly shorter loading time, between clicking "okay" to start a mission and wresting control of a landing drop-pod - 39.2 seconds via that method, vs. 40.9 via the default, larger installation on HDD. But it's arguably an optimistic sign for the slim installation method's impact on default online play.

Worth noting, only the HDD install with the beta slim profile exhibited awkward asset load-in when the mission control, pre-mission area appeared in our first test. Important models like the spinning-globe interface and crew members needed an extra 3-4 seconds to load into view, and this included a 2-second frame-time pause. We loaded three in-the-wild missions after this to look for stutters or pop-in on other planets with new creatures and other assets loading and did not discern immediate signs of such issues.

Also, the first time we ran the tutorial test on both SSD versions, our slim install suffered from multiple frame-time pauses during its pre-gameplay FMV that the default installation did not. A re-run cleared this up, so this may have been due to shader compilation hiccups. Testing the slim SSD install in normal missions afterward did not immediately turn up noticeable increases in shader compilation issues, but that's not a firm conclusion at this point.

The least surprising finding is that the shrunken SSD install version appears to load at identical speeds as the larger install - which matches Arrowhead's prior findings. Should your favourite SSD be short on space, we cautiously recommend giving the slim beta a shot, with the obvious caveat that beta edge cases could lead to crashes and lost mission progress.

As of press time, HD2 owners on Steam can opt in by right-clicking in the "Library" interface, selecting "properties," and clicking through to HD2's "betas" tab. There, a drop-down menu includes "prod_slim" as an option. Select it, and Steam will immediately download replacement files and delete the older, larger ones.

Arrowhead suggests that this slim installation profile will become the PC version's default by 2026 in order to streamline the game-update process and is keeping track of bugs and issues in its beta period. And a cursory look at HD2-specific forums on Steam and Reddit suggest little in the way of slim-beta bugs or volatility at this time, though we'll keep an eye on its impact ahead of its eventual roll-out to all players.