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Plantable Ballistic Shield 1.1.2

A Mod for Helldivers 2
  • aks98
Overview Updates (1) History
Plantable Ballistic Shield akl_mod_preview_image
Ballistic Shield Plant
Drop your shield. Hold the line.

Ballistic Shield Plant allows players to place their SH-20 Ballistic Shield on the ground, much like the One True Flag. Instead of simply discarding your shield, you can deploy it as a stationary piece of ballistic cover.

The shield continues to function after being placed, allowing you to create defensive positions, protect equipment and fight from behind cover without sacrificing your primary weapon.

Whether you're digging into a trench or holding a position against overwhelming firepower, your shield is now more than something you carry.

Features

  • Deployable Ballistic Shield: Drop your equipped shield using the normal backpack-drop command to plant it upright on the ground.
  • Functional Cover: Planted shields retain their protective functionality, allowing you to fire from behind them while crouched or prone.
  • Shield Walls: Deploy multiple shields to create improvised barricades and defensive fighting positions.
  • Emplacement Protection: Position shields around turrets, mounted weapons and other defensive equipment.
  • Weapon Flexibility: Put down your shield and use two-handed weapons without abandoning its protection.
  • Angled Protection: Planted shields lean backward approximately 15 degrees, allowing incoming rounds to be deflected upward or downward depending on their trajectory.
  • Reusable Equipment: Pick up your shield and redeploy it whenever you need to reposition.

How It Works

  • Equip the SH-20 Ballistic Shield stratagem.
  • Call down a shield and equip it normally.
  • Face the direction you want your shield to protect.
  • Use the normal backpack-drop command.
  • The shield will plant itself upright, facing your character's direction.
  • Pick it back up whenever you're ready to move.

No additional stratagems, keybindings or equipment are required, and it does not occupy space in your mod menu. The mod modifies the behavior of the existing ballistic shield rather than replacing it.


Requirements

  • Helldivers 2 on Windows PC
  • Bingus Shared Loader v16 or above / API 1
  • A mod manager (HD2 Arsenal recommended)

Installation

Import the ZIP into HD2 Arsenal, enable the mod and deploy it. Install Bingus Shared Loader separately if you have not already done so.

If you have an older version of Ballistic Shield Plant installed (v0.1.x or v0.2.x), disable it before deploying this version.

Compatibility and Limitations

  • Experimental: This mod uses native game functions and is dependent on the game's internal code. After an incompatible game update, the mod is designed to disable itself rather than attempt unsafe memory modifications.
  • Stationary Cover: Planted shields do not attach to moving vehicles or platforms.
  • Terrain: Shields remain upright rather than aligning themselves with the slope of the ground. Placement may vary on uneven terrain, rocks and vehicles.
  • Animations: There is currently no dedicated planting animation. Dropping the shield uses the game's normal backpack-drop behavior.
  • Shield Type: Only the SH-20 Ballistic Shield is supported.
  • Configuration: Placement height and angle are fixed in this release, although the included source contains settings for adjusting them.

For troubleshooting, the mod produces Shield-Plant.log in: %LOCALAPPDATA%\CowboyBingus\Helldivers2\Logs
The log records initialization, shield placement, performance and any compatibility failures.


Original Author Credit

Credit to the original author: Version 0.1.9 of this mod was uploaded by huff_designs, who did the foundational research into shield placement and deserves credit for that work.

This version rebuilds and extends the original implementation, including shield carry detection, ground placement, orientation, pickup behavior, error handling, performance improvements and a standalone runtime.

Additional Credits
  • CowboyBingus: Bingus Shared Loader.

Not affiliated with or endorsed by Arrowhead Game Studios or Sony Interactive Entertainment.

BALLISTIC SHIELD PLANT: Why carry your cover when you can make a position worth defending?

TO DO:
- Stability fixes for multiplayer
- ability to attach shield to vehicles
- Mod menu option to draw aggro (similar to flag?)
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aks98
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Version
1.1.2
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aks98
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Tags

##helldivers 2 #helldivers 2 #helldivers2 #stratagem #stratagems #tactical

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Latest updates

  1. Shield Controls

    Shields can be placed sideways now, and the angle can be controlled. Both are modified in the...
Read more
iniVsocraM

iniVsocraM

Members
Members
Sep 11, 2026
13
7
Hi! I tested this mod with a friend in multiplayer, and it seems to be causing crashes for teammates. We ran into this during our tests, so I wanted to report it. Thanks for your work on the mod!
 
k0nd3s

k0nd3s

Members
Members
Oct 3, 2026
3
0
I guess this works in multiplayer too right? Since its just a position drop modification, instead of lying flat on the ground it just keep stand up with the new shield upgrade... The kick stand! xD
 
A

ayamood

Members
Members
Sep 19, 2026
11
2
can you make a version that drops sideways? or a command, to be able to shoot over while crouched. Really cool!

I thought it was going to stay up higher from the ground when I asked. its low enough that on crouching you can shot over already. Is it clipping into the ground? I can't tell.

Its crashing other players on version V0.3.4

Ran the logs through deepseek:

Hi,

I've been debugging client crashes when players join my game, and I think Shield Plant is the cause. Two log excerpts:

From HD2Runtime.log:


entity map row 1595 (resource 0x967ED15E0BAE363B) is not as reviewed:
writes to it are refused ...
another mod may have loaded or changed entities, so this write is refused
From Shield-Plant.log:


PREPARED Sticky target=0x967ED15E0BAE363B slot=37 appended_record=20
APPLIED 6 guarded data writes; SH-20-only Sticky component added
Same resource ID (0x967ED15E0BAE363B). Shield Plant is appending a record to the SH-20 entity's component map, and HD2Runtime is refusing writes because the map is no longer in the reviewed state. I suspect that's what breaks network replication → joiners crash.

Questions:

  1. Does it need to append a record at runtime, or could it reuse a pre-allocated / existing component slot?
  2. Does the appended record carry anything network-replicated (position, ownership, contact/actor IDs)? The log shows actor=4294967295 (no-actor sentinel) repeatedly — could that be what clients choke on?
Repro: 2-player lobby, HD2Runtime 0.31.3, Shield Plant 0.3.4, SH-20 deployed and picked up a few times. Warning fires on the first write.

Thanks.
 
Last edited:
A

aks98

Members
Members
Sep 30, 2026
61
19
iniVsocraM said:
Hi! I tested this mod with a friend in multiplayer, and it seems to be causing crashes for teammates. We ran into this during our tests, so I wanted to report it. Thanks for your work on the mod!
Click to expand...
ayamood said:
can you make a version that drops sideways? or a command, to be able to shoot over while crouched. Really cool!

I thought it was going to stay up higher from the ground when I asked. its low enough that on crouching you can shot over already. Is it clipping into the ground? I can't tell.

Its crashing other players on version V0.3.4

Ran the logs through deepseek:

Hi,

I've been debugging client crashes when players join my game, and I think Shield Plant is the cause. Two log excerpts:

From HD2Runtime.log:


entity map row 1595 (resource 0x967ED15E0BAE363B) is not as reviewed:
writes to it are refused ...
another mod may have loaded or changed entities, so this write is refused
From Shield-Plant.log:


PREPARED Sticky target=0x967ED15E0BAE363B slot=37 appended_record=20
APPLIED 6 guarded data writes; SH-20-only Sticky component added
Same resource ID (0x967ED15E0BAE363B). Shield Plant is appending a record to the SH-20 entity's component map, and HD2Runtime is refusing writes because the map is no longer in the reviewed state. I suspect that's what breaks network replication → joiners crash.

Questions:

  1. Does it need to append a record at runtime, or could it reuse a pre-allocated / existing component slot?
  2. Does the appended record carry anything network-replicated (position, ownership, contact/actor IDs)? The log shows actor=4294967295 (no-actor sentinel) repeatedly — could that be what clients choke on?
Repro: 2-player lobby, HD2Runtime 0.31.3, Shield Plant 0.3.4, SH-20 deployed and picked up a few times. Warning fires on the first write.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
Will take a look at this. It was built off of HD2Runtime (which is multi-player experimental) so this may be related. If you (or someone else) can get me data of TWO players in a lobby, both running this mod, that would be helpful.

As for height/clipping, it was manually set to spawn 0.45u into the ground. This is because it was hovering before and under intense fire you could get shot in the foot. It IS possible to drop it down sideways- I can add that in while I look at stability. Stay tuned. Added, plus the ability to change the rotation or lay it down sideways.
 
Last edited:
B

Black Hand

Members
Members
Sep 20, 2026
8
2
Wonderful concept, but im just a bit disapponted this isn't based on the flag plant system. As such, we can't plant the shield on other objects, like vehicles and on other backpacks and Ballistic shields. Would it be possible to enable that?
 
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