Uh oh: Helldivers 2 players glimpse cloaked warships over Automaton planets, and Liberty only knows what they’ll bring to bear against us
Are these Automaton reinforcements, or something else?
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Super Earth’s elite space marines may be riding the high of a historic victory at Malevelon Creek right now, but here’s something to sober you up: in the hours following the Automatons' defeat at “Space Vietnam,” Helldivers 2 players have begun to report sightings of what appear to be colossal cloaked warships ominously hanging in orbit over the bot-controlled planets that still remain in the Severin Sector.
The community first became aware of these mysterious vessels on Monday afternoon after u/infinity__cubepostedseveral screenshots of the ships on the Helldivers subreddit. Though they’re quite difficult to make out in most of them — their cloaking blends them in with the sky and clouds alarmingly well — their silhouettes become much easier to spot whenever they’re viewed against the backdrop of something bright like a distant planet or an asteroid belt. Images from playersu/Firestorm_361andu/Spartas72show them clearly (Firestorm’s picture is the header image of this article).
My first thought was that these might just be Helldiver Super Destroyers being rendered oddly due to a glitch, but that fin-shaped bit near each craft’s stern is particularly distinct, and the rest of their contour doesn’t match that of Liberty’s iconic battleship, either. They also appear to be significantly bigger than Super Destroyers, too, so I doubt what’s going on here is just a bug or something. And while todayisApril Fools' Day, I’m not convinced this is just a joke from the devs, as Helldivers 2 has done stealthy in-game teasers like this before withExosuit mechs.
Some players suspect that these are new Automaton gunships; Super Earth High Command recently informed Helldivers that the bots were broadcasting blueprints for these to an unknown location beyond the galaxy map’s borders. To me, though, these seem far too large to be those, as they’re massive cruiser-sized vessels that call Star Wars' Imperial Star Destroyers to mind. What seems more likely is that these are troop transports carrying tons of these gunships and various other kinds of bot reinforcements — reinforcements we’ll likely have to deal with once we hold offthe first wave of the Automatons' ongoing counterattack(if we do).
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Another possibility is that these ships are actually the Illuminate’s, and that the third faction from the original Helldivers is waiting for the Automatons to soften us up a bit more before it makes its explosive return to the galactic battlefields. Playerswerereporting mysterious blue laser beam attacks last month, after all, and the Illuminate used cloaking devices for its units in the first game. Admittedly, it’d be surprising if we got an entirely new enemy faction just two months after Helldivers 2’s launch, but maybe this is just a very early teaser of what’s to come later this year.
Whateverthey are, I’m expecting the Ministry of Truth and developer Arrowhead’s CEO Johan Pilestedt to tell us that the cloaked spaceships aren’t real and that they can’t hurt you. They did it forthe new flying Shrieker Terminid bugsand they did it for the blue laser sightings, too, so it’ll probably happen again during this developing situation as well. I don’t care what they say, though — they’re not on the frontlines like the Helldivers are. I know what I’ve seen!
Whenever these warships and their occupantsdoenter the fray, it’ll surely lead to some complex and challenging Major Orders. Players have failed a few of these recently, and one of the big reasons why seems to be a lack of awareness of thesupply linesmechanic; luckily,Arrowhead has confirmed it’s “talking about making this more clear,“so hopefully some much-needed in-game visualizations of them come sooner rather than later.
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At least Super Earth is keeping her troops well-equipped. Recently,two new support weapon stratagemsrolled off the assembly line, including a Heavy Machine Gun with high damage and armor penetration but lots of recoil and a Quasar Cannon that’s essentially a rocket launcher with infinite ammo, but a lengthy charge up time. Don’t forget about all those snazzy energy and arc weapons inthe new Cutting Edge Warbond, too.
Helldivers 2 is available now for $39.99 on both PS5 and PC, and so far, it’s one of thebest PC gamesof the year. Notably, the game also supports cross-platform play between PS5 and PC.
Helldivers 2 —$39.99 at GMG (Steam)Battle aliens, robots, and other beasts in humanity’s quest to spread democracy through an unforgiving galaxy. It’s 4-player co-op at its absolute best, and its most refined.
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Brendan Lowry is a Windows Central writer and Oakland University graduate with a burning passion for video games, of which he’s been an avid fan since childhood. He’s been writing for Team WC since the summer of 2017, and you’ll find him doing news, editorials, reviews, and general coverage on everything gaming, Xbox, and Windows PC. His favorite game of all time is probably NieR: Automata, though Elden Ring, Fallout: New Vegas, and Team Fortress 2 are in the running, too. When he’s not writing or gaming, there’s a good chance he’s either watching an interesting new movie or TV show or actually going outside for once.Follow him on X(Twitter).
