Arrowhead Game Studios announced a new Terminid strain called the Noxious strain, now skittering across the front lines, in a post on the PlayStation Blog. The Ministry of Truth describes them as fast, venomous, and opposed to Managed Democracy.
Terminid cave networks now appear across more biomes in the galaxy, from scorched deserts to frozen tundras. The post warns every planet may have a hive beneath it. A frozen tundra now carries the same tunnel risk as a scorched desert, and the visual absence of bugs no longer says much about what sits below the map. Squads now have to assume a tunnel network can be present on any deployment, and that changes initial drop zones and fallback routes.
This update arrives after October’s Liberty Day event, and it adds a new combat tempo to the Terminid front through movement speed, poison, and environmental pressure.
The Noxious strain arrives
The smallest new threat is the Noxious Scavenger. At first glance it resembles an ordinary Scavenger, but it is noticeably quicker than its cousins, which makes it hard to keep in your sights. Every bite delivers a deadly dose of poison and the bug is ready to bite again almost immediately. A closer target that applies venom changes the encounter because a diver cannot afford to take an exploratory bite while lining up a precise shot.
Fortunately, Noxious Scavengers are fragile. Weapons that reward volume over precision, such as shotguns, flamethrowers, and grenades, make short work of them. The post says ammunition is cheaper than antivenom.
The Noxious Spewer and its webs
The Noxious Spewer is a hulking monstrosity that moves with unsettling speed, and it spreads the webs now draped across the battlefield. That movement profile breaks from standard Spewers dragging themselves across the ground. A slow Spewer lets a diver choose when to engage or fall back. A fast Spewer closes that decision window, and the webs add a new hazard to the space it controls.
Arrowhead has already adjusted the Terminid roster once in recent memory, when the Devoid of Liberty patch reworked the Bile strain. The Noxious Spewer adds webs and a faster frame to that behavioral toolkit.
At medium range, watch for its Web Spit. One hit removes your ability to sprint, and the post says that is deliberate, because the abomination wants to close distance. Losing sprint matters because repositioning is the main way to avoid the follow-up bite.
The Noxious Spewer’s bite is quick, has surprising reach, and carries a stronger dose of venom than anything a Scavenger can deliver. Its head is protected by medium armor, but its web-filled abdomen has no armor. When the sac bursts in a Web Explosion, it will snare every Helldiver and bug nearby. Super Earth recommends not being caught in the explosion.
Killing the Spewer point-blank at the abdomen can trigger the Web Explosion and snare the diver who fired the final shot plus any squadmates standing close. Detonate the abdomen from a short distance and then move clear.
A two-tier poison system
Every Noxious bite inflicts poison, and a new poison icon on the HUD tracks the condition. Super Earth splits the poisoning into two tiers. Lightly poisoned means your vision starts to haze and the poison begins to eat away at your health. Heavily poisoned means damage over time increases, you lose the ability to sprint, and your vision hazes.
Light poisoning is still a drain, but a diver can keep moving and shoot back while deciding whether to stim. Heavy poisoning removes sprint at the same time the damage accelerates, which makes escape or repositioning much harder. The HUD icon tells you which tier you are in before the vision haze makes the mechanical penalty obvious.
Stims cure the poison condition, so ration them wisely. A poisoned squadmate may need that stim to keep going. A stim used at the moment of heavy poisoning restores movement and stops the damage escalation. A squad that spends stims on minor health recovery may find itself without a cure when a Noxious Scavenger applies heavy poison in a cave.
Caves spread, and the loadout math shifts
Bug caves are no longer limited to a handful of worlds. They now have a chance to appear across more biomes on the Galactic map. Inside these tunnels sightlines are short, corners are blind, and fast enemies arrive before you hear them. The post calls this ideal territory for the Noxious bugs. Bring close-range firepower, stay with your squad, and keep a stim in reserve for whoever wandered too far ahead.
The same close-range tools that handle Noxious Scavengers also suit the cave environment. Shotguns and flamethrowers clear the small, fragile swarm quickly with volume, and their limited range matters less when every sightline ends at a rock wall. Precision weapons lose value in tunnels, where a Noxious Scavenger can close from a blind corner before a diver can line up a shot.
In caves, the Spewer’s Web Explosion punishes groups that stack too close while focusing it down, so squads need to balance damage output with spacing.
A diver who separates from the squad in a tunnel is the one most likely to take a poison bite alone and the least likely to have someone close enough to cover the escape.
The post closes with an in-universe note that arachnophobia is not a recognized exemption from military service.
