What’s in the First Update 21 Experimental Branch Playtest?

Hello everyone,

Welcome to our first playtest for Update 21 coming later this year. Update 21 introduces a number of new additions, alongside significant changes to several core gameplay systems that we're excited for you to get hands-on with.

The Experimental Branch playtest will kick off Friday 7 August, at 6am PDT | 9am EDT | 2pm BST | 3pm CEST.

Conquest Mode

Many of you may have already had the opportunity to test Conquest in our v1 and v2 tests earlier in 2026. We are now excited to reveal that Conquest will officially be joining Hell Let Loose as part of Update 21 (as well as being one of the four game modes that will be in Hell Let Loose: Vietnam).

Conquest has gone through a lot of changes and iterations throughout its development and has been guided by much of the feedback we received after the previous two playtests.

If you're interested in learning more about how the new mode works, be sure to head over to watch the Dev Diary we released in conjunction with the first test where Matt and Xander break down the fundamentals of the mode.

As part of this test, we will be playing Conquest on two maps:

Juno Beach - Day
Carentan - Day

We can’t wait for you all to share your thoughts as this game mode will continue to be developed and updated based on community feedback.

Weapon Changes

New Weapons: M1903A3 and M1903A4 Springfield Rifle

We are excited to bring two brand new weapons to the game; the M1903A3 and M1903A4 Springfield Rifle.

The M1903A3 Springfield bolt-action rifle joins the US Forces, while the M1903A4 Springfield replaces the existing Springfield Sniper rifle.

More new weapons will be coming in future Experimental Branches so stay tuned!

Dev Brief Image

Weapon Fire Selector

Next up, we have a feature that has long been requested by the community; the weapon fire selector. All weapons that historically featured fire select modes have now had that functionality implemented. You can now freely toggle fire modes on the following weapons

As part of this test, the playable maps feature the US, Canadian and German forces, so only weapons used by those factions will be available in matches. All other weapons can still be tested in the Practice Range.

MG34
FG42
STG 44
BAR (fast and slow auto)
Thompson M1
Thompson M1928a1
Bren Gun
Sten Gun MK2
Sten Gun MK2 (Canadian)
Sten Gun Mk5
PPSH 41

Please note, audio and animations for these fire select switches are a Work In Progress, and that fire modes can currently be toggled by pressing Caps lock on keyboard.

Loadout Changes

Update 21 will also be bringing a raft of loadout changes.

For this playtest, we would love to hear your feedback on loadout changes we are looking to implement:

Rifleman

New level 6 loadout for the US Rifleman called “Marksman”
Comes equipped with a M1903A3 Springfield and an explosive ammo box
For the experimental branch the role will have no level requirement in order to let players try it out

Tank Commander

US tank commander’s default loadout weapon changed to the M3 Grease Gun from the Thompson

Default Crewman

The blowtorch equipment is now available on all default Crewman loadouts

Technician Wrench

Added the ability to build nodes with the Technician wrench

Anti-tank

Primary weapon for the default US Anti-tank role changed from the M1 Garand to the M1903A3 Springfield

Handling Changes

Alongside loadout changes, the team have also been looking at a number of handling changes to improve how they feel. Please keep an eye out for the following experimental changes whilst you play.

Weapon Sway

The first experimental change affects several rifles, as we have increased their weapon sway when looking around. This only affects them visually and should have no impact on accuracy when aiming.

This has currently been applied to the following weapons:

M1 Garand
M1903A3 Springfield
Kar 98k
SMLE No 1 MK III
All non-sniper Mosin Nagant variants

These changes are experimental so be sure to give feedback if you prefer these, or how they worked previously.

Recoil Changes

We have made two small recoil based changes to the Bren Gun and the STG 44.

For the STG 44, we have given it a small recoil increase. For the Bren Gun, we have made two specific changes. These are:

A greatly reduced visual screen shake
And slightly increased recoil

Previously the Bren Gun had little to no recoil but a high amount of screen shake when firing, making it appear to have more recoil than it actually did. This has now been adjusted, with a slight recoil increase to better match the reduced visual shake.

Armor & Vehicle Changes

Dev Brief Image luchs 2

Vehicle Spawn Limit

To kick things off, we have introduced a new Vehicle Spawn Limit. We have upped the limit from 5 to 8 for vehicles spawned from Commander abilities.

We are looking at this change for a few reasons. Firstly, after our recent changes in Update 20 including making jeeps and halftracks cheaper, we wanted to make sure that commanders didn't feel punished for spawning vehicles in and accidently limiting the amount of tanks that could be spawned. Likewise, this also gives players increased choice whilst also preparing for any future vehicles that may come to the game…

Luchs Balance

The next change comes specifically to the Luchs tank.

With the Luchs being a primary Anti-Infantry Light tank, it has historically had little to no impact on other enemy armor. For this Experimental Branch playtest, we have done a slight rework on the Luchs and it can now do the following:

Can damage the engines of all tanks
Can damage and destroy any Light from the rear. Recon tanks are a Work In Progress but will behave the same

We can’t wait to hear your thoughts on these changes after playtesting the Luchs at the weekend.

Def Brief website

Armor Balance

Armor has undergone a significant balance pass to better define the role of each tank class

Heavy tanks have been rebalanced towards an anti-tank role, carrying more Armor Piercing (AP) ammunition with reduced High Explosive (HE) capacity, while Medium tanks now specialise in anti-infantry combat, carrying more HE ammunition at the expense of AP rounds. The Sherman Jumbo 75 remains the exception, retaining its role as a heavy anti-infantry tank

HE shell blast radius have also been adjusted to reinforce these roles, with Medium tanks receiving larger a blast radius than most Heavy tanks to make them more effective against infantry

Additional balance changes include:

Increased turret rotation speeds for several German and British tanks to improve responsiveness
Firefly damage increased to improve its effectiveness against armor
Fuel costs adjusted for the Panzer IV and Sherman Medium
Improved low-speed handling for the Sherman Medium
Experimental collision and physics improvements for the Panzer IV aimed at reducing instances of tanks flipping or launching unexpectedly
All SPAs now include an extra gunner zoom level, providing improved long-range target acquisition

Additionally, we have also enacted some changes to tank survivability

Increase to heavy tanks' front hull resistance (32% → 36%) and side hull resistance (16% → 28%)
Increase to Panther tank upper side hull resistance (16% → 23%)
Increase to medium tanks' front hull resistance (16% → 30%)

Salvage Balance

Finally on armor changes, all vehicles have had their salvaged fuel returns increased from between 1.5x to 2x times their previous amount.

Please share your feedback on all the Armor changes following the playtest, with the full details as well as further Armor balancing being revealed for Update 21.

Prone Collision Updates

This Experimental Branch introduces a Work In Progress update to how player collision works when prone. This has been designed to reduce instances of player models clipping into walls, terrain and other environmental objects while prone.

As part of this system, players may notice their character being gently pushed when rotating near obstacles to prevent clipping.

This is an early implementation, and we're aware of existing issues, so we'd appreciate you putting it through its paces and sharing your feedback via the feedback form.

Join the Playtest - War Correspondent Server Slam Event

Thank you to everyone joining this weekend's Experimental Branch. Your feedback plays a vital role in shaping Update 21, so please be sure to complete the feedback form after you've had a chance to play. We look forward to hearing your thoughts and we'll see you on the battlefield.

If you'd like to get involved, the Experimental Branch will be live throughout the weekend. To help fill the servers and put these new features through their paces, SoulSniper, TheFreshBakedGoods, RubberDuck and many more members of our War Correspondent programme will be hosting a 'Server Slam Community Event'.

Join us on Saturday 8 August at 10am PDT | 1pm EDT | 6pm BST | 7pm CEST, jump into the Experimental Branch on Steam, and join the action!

War Correspondents Content

As always, our War Correspondents have been on the front-lines creating some incredible content. Check out some of their latest releases below:

McBluffin

First up, McBluffin gets some tips from the BEST players in Hell Let Loose. You don't want to miss this one

SoulSniper

IronHeart

RubberDuck

DasAltberg

Dev Brief #219 | First U21 Experimental Branch Test | Weapon & Armor Changes

Patch 1.6 | Hell Let Loose: Vietnam

Community Feedback #6 | Command Post

Hotfix 1.5.2 | Hell Let Loose: Vietnam

Community Feedback #5 | Command Post