Last weekend, High Command congratulatedHelldivers 2players on eradicating the Automatons. A day later, they came back with a vengeance, and Helldivers have been in chaos ever since. Combine these plot elements with a Warbond that not everybody is in love with, system overhauls and expansions, leaks, and more, and there’s no shortage of things to pick apart in Helldivers 2 this week.

Guess Who’s Back, Back Again

I feel a little bad about saying I missed the Automatons last week, considering that they came back, angrier than ever, within a day or two. After the success of Operation Swift Disassembly and the subsequent Operation Rearing, used to clear the way for Terminid-rearing farms, there was a sudden high priority broadcast calling “all units to LIBCON 1”.

Atweet to the official Helldivers 2 accountsaid that “as suspected all along” (cue massive eye roll) the Bot forces we’d decimated were merely a vanguard, and a massive fleet was now assaulting Cyberstan and the planets around it. This is the official start of the Reclamation, the Automaton uprising we’d heard whispers of, that we were trying to prevent with Operation Swift Disassembly.

This fan-made Automaton diss track, released last week when the bots returned, was pretty sick.

We were then thrown into Operation Courageous Defense, forced to defend at least five planets from the encroaching enemy forces. We failed – there were just too many planets to defend and, as we saw withthe loss of Ubanea earlier this month, the player base is just not coordinated enough to operate with any kind of focused strategy.

The smart thing to do,following supply lines, would have been to liberate Menkent first and move to Lesath and Choohe after. Most people, myself included, didn’t think that far ahead, and went straight for the planet with the most players. This went poorly, and the operation failed.

In my case, I went to Chort Bay first.I hate Chort Bay with all my heart.

Don’t worry, all is not lost. That Major Order was replaced with a much more pointed one – I imagine Joel saw our total lack of strategy and coordination, sighed, and decided to just direct us to do precisely what we should have done in the first place. Operation Menkent Line forced us all towards Menkent and Lesath to hold a defensive line against the Automaton advance, giving Super Earth Command time to establish orbital defences. At the time of writing, there’s about a day left on the timer and both planets are already under player control.

I know what you’re thinking: it sounds like we’re doing pretty well, all things considered! Well, you’re wrong. Something evil is afoot, I can sense it. You may have noticed that the Automatons invaded the top left area of the map instead of the far left where we’ve been fighting them so far, and that one of the many planets they seized was Cyberstan.

Cyberstan, of course, is the homeworld and capital of the Cyborg nation in the first Helldivers, a people continually occupied by Super Earth forces. Finally, during the last Galactic War, the Cyborgs were locked away in the mines of Cyberstan and left there to rot.

Now, the Automatons have Cyberstan, and have likely freed them and begun to collaborate against Super Earth. I have a feeling that the dismembered human bodies that players have been finding scattered around Automaton strongholds might have something to do with this. Regardless, the fight to spread managed democracy is about to get much harder. These two months of fighting were just the start – it’s just a matter of time before we see some very angry Cyborgs joining the fray.

Leaks, Leaks, And More Leaks

Ah, but there’smore. Last week, my colleague (and fellow Helldivers 2 conspiracy theorist) James Troughtonreportedthat dataminers had uncovered proof that the Automatons would liberate Cyberstan. A few days later, those claims were confirmed, which makes the rest of the leak more plausible: the Cyborgs will be overhauling and upgrading the Automatons, giving them new weapons and troop types. One of the alleged additions will be an orbital artillery cannon that can take downourSuper Destroyers. Considering that a lot of the game’s strategy revolves around the opportune use of stratagems, this would be painful, to say the least.

A leaked news broadcast also shows that the Terminid Control System that Helldivers fought so hard to install in the Meridia system has backfired, and instead of killing them en masse, has caused them to mutate. So they’re going to be stronger, and probably bigger,which will probably give me nightmares. As if the bugs growing wings wasn’t bad enough.

Oh, and there are more hints at the Illuminate coming back. We’ve seen their cloaked warships lurking about, players have reported seeing their signature blue lasers on the battlefield, and I myself have seen unexplainable map blips from seemingly invisible enemies running past me on Automaton worlds. Now, there’s been a leak of an audio clip of Helldivers screaming about “tentacles” while getting brutally murdered. Yikes.

Upgrades, Patches, And Warbond Woes

If you’re a hardcore player who’s already unlocked every stratagem and ship module available,Helldivers are now able to requisition an additional level four moduleunder all Super Destroyer systems. These include Enhanced Combustion, which increases fire damage, an XXL Weapons Bay, which removes all of Eagle 1’s safety measures to fit in more bombs, Atmospheric Monitoring, which reduces Orbital 380mm and 120mm Barrage spread by 15 percent (thank Liberty), and more. The Superior Packing Methodology seems to be bugged at the moment, but the developers say restarting your game should be an adequate stopgap while they work on a more permanent fix.

There’s been a pretty cool new mission type added with the return of the Automatons called “Evacuate High-Value Assets”. I love playing it because it’s short, maxing out at 20 minutes, and you can chill out and shoot down ships with a Quasar cannon for most of the mission without facingthatmuch difficulty.

Apart from that, if you’ve been facing constant crashes, the latest patch has addressed a number of known issues,including the snowball problem, andArrowhead is planning to “overhaul” the medal systembecause of its current unreliability. The Democratic Detonation Warbond has launched to some annoyance from players, as theCE-27 Ground Breaker Armour launched with the wrong passive traitand peopleabsolutelyhatethe BR-14 Adjudicator.

Helldivers 2

Helldivers 2 is the sequel to the third-person shooter from Arrowhead Game Studios. This time out, the Helldivers are deep in the Galactic War, and it’s up to you to bring Managed Democracy to the masses.