Helldivers 2’s One-Two Assault Rifle Confirms What Fans Feared About Weapon Customization
Helldivers 2’s Python Commandos Premium Warbond is out now, but forget the headline-grabbing minigun—the real game-changer is the AR/GL-21 One-Two, a hybrid assault rifle with a built-in grenade launcher that could reshape the battlefield.
Python Commandos, the new Premium Warbond for Helldivers 2, is out. Everyone is understandably drooling over the new minigun, but I want to talk about the primary weapon tucked inside this drop: the AR/GL-21 One-Two. It is both very cool and a little worrying.
The One-Two: A blast, literally
The AR/GL-21 is a hybrid assault rifle with a built-in 40mm grenade launcher. You get your regular rifle fire and a thumping launcher in one slot, which means you do not have to chew up your secondary just to bring explosives. That is instant versatility, and players seem pretty happy with it so far.
'Awesome gun, unsettling message: instead of expanding attachments, Arrowhead baked a grenade launcher into one rifle and called it a day.'
Why this is setting off alarm bells
When the One-Two first showed up, a lot of players had the same thought I did: cool, now turn that into an underbarrel attachment we can slap on existing ARs. That would be a real system-level upgrade. Instead, the grenade launcher is exclusive to this one weapon. If that exclusivity is the selling point, history says it probably stays exclusive.
Which feeds into a bigger concern: Helldivers 2’s weapon customization has not meaningfully grown beyond utility tweaks, and this gun looks like confirmation that it is not about to. Right now you can bolt on grips, optics, muzzles, and magazines, and on the underbarrel side you are basically limited to grips, lasers, and flashlights. None of that changes how a gun functions the way a 40mm would. The One-Two feels less like a step toward deeper modding and more like a neat variant standing in for it.
The pattern that keeps repeating
There have been whispers since launch that Arrowhead once aimed higher with weapon systems — think modular Liberators and even helmet HUD variations — before deadlines forced them to scale back. In that context, the One-Two reads like a compromise that stuck: add new guns with slightly different roles and stats, sell them in Warbonds, and keep the attachment system relatively shallow.
- What you can customize now: grips, optics, muzzles, magazines; underbarrel options are mostly utility (grips/lasers/flashlights).
- What players hoped for: functional underbarrels like a universal GL, ammo conversions, and modular parts that change how guns play, not just how they feel.
- What the One-Two suggests: the grenade launcher is locked to a single rifle, likely because that uniqueness is the hook — not a feature that will roll out across the arsenal.
- Why it matters: making the GL an attachment could have breathed life into weaker ARs and boosted variety without cranking out new models every Warbond.
Cool idea, missed opportunity
To be clear, people are not mad about the power level here. The One-Two is a strong idea executed cleanly. The frustration is about what it implies for the future: more bespoke variants, fewer truly modular upgrades. In a live service game, I get why the team needs new toys to sell. I just wish those toys sometimes expanded the sandbox instead of sitting next to it.
How are you feeling about the AR/GL-21? Are you slotting it into your loadout, or holding out for real underbarrel upgrades? Drop your take below.