Found the solution to crash on startup !

[Xertic]

Right click helldivers 2 on steam library and click properties at the bottom of list
Go to "Controller" on left hand side second from the bottom
On the right side in controller options, change that to disable steam input

I tried all these different settings, and it instantly crashes on startup if it's set to anything other than the disable option.

As soon as I make it "disable steam input" it works!

Hope this fixes your startup crash issue!
Please let me know if it worked

[RUMMY]

Still crashing for me after trying this. Glad it works for others. Just letting yall know its not a fix all

[lil_hatsch]

Worked for me!!! don't tell me the anti cheat doesn't want steam controller support...

[Troy Muni]

doesn't work for me. 13900k/4090 so not a potato pc issue. Every time I try to go into settings it crashes.

[Xertic]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Troy Muni:

doesn't work for me. 13900k/4090 so not a potato pc issue. Every time I try to go into settings it crashes.

Sorry to hear that bro as I am having the settings crash issue (regarding the escape/opening of options menu) myself.
This fix I posted is only a temp solution for the crash that happens when starting the game itself.

In the meantime you could go through the config file located in appdata/roaming/arrowhead
Open that with wordpad or preferably notepad++ and do some temp fixes to graphics that you recognize! Make sure to create a copy/backup of said file in-case you mess up your settings:)

If joining friends is the issue, you could use steam invites as temp solution as well until the fix arrives

[DubDub39]

Worked like a charm. Thanks so much!

[Xertic]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Troy Muni:

doesn't work for me. 13900k/4090 so not a potato pc issue. Every time I try to go into settings it crashes.

Patch seemed to fix the settings bug!
If you haven't gotten the 1.4 gig update that arrived 5 mins ago, restart steam and it will update! Enjoy liberty

[Harry S]

You can also try these, especially the first few - https://quoramarketing.com/fix-helldivers-2-crashing-on-startup-not-starting-launching-issues/

[Panda]

i cant even launch the game, it keeps crashing every time i press the play button.

[ChaosActual]

I've tried everything. Disable Steam input, putting the files in the anti-virus stuff, turning off anti-virus, updating everything, all the fixes and workarounds you've seen on every forum everywhere. And yet, I STILL crash as soon as I try to load the dang game.

[Vivian]

Had the game keep crashing on the select language screen. This was my fix if it's helpful to anyone

%AppData%\Arrowhead\Helldivers2/

The user_settings file

open it in a text editor and scroll to the bottom

Update
initial_setup_completed = false

to
initial_setup_completed = true

This bypasses the language selection and the game has worked fine since then.

[Patharax]

Bro you a legend. Works!

[Aedon]

If you also have any launch parameters you were using before the patch, check if they're still in there and try removing them. I found that i had them and it was causing my game crashes. I removed them and found that it fixed my crashing on startup.

[Hellyeah62]

This actually comes up on screen when you enter the ship, a tip from the devs. Has been for some time now.

[▿▼ HeavySK ▼▿]

Disable overlays in all apps.
The game had problems with Steam overlay when it came out and they "fixed it" with the latest patch, but it looks like the patch is causing problems with other overlays.
I disabled discord overlay, Steam overlay, closed MSI afterburner, and closed Outplayed by Overwolf.
All the apps were using some kind of overlay and now I can open the game and play with no problems.

[Leatherface24]

Awesome!! Thanks!!