Helldivers 2 players are used to things not going their way, so the last few days have been pretty odd. After successfully liberating Malevelon Creek (aka Robot Vietnam) earlier this week, the robot Automaton faction struck back with even greater firepower, but players have managed to hold them off. In fact, they’ve done so well that the Automaton threat is all but wiped out in the galaxy. There are now only three holdout planets under Automaton control, meaning that it stands to reason that players could wipe them out entirely this weekend.
At least, that’s the goal of the latest major order in Helldivers 2. You see, all of these recent skirmishes against the Automatons has to do with Operation Swift Disassembly, a push in Helldivers 2’s story to dismantle the Automatons. The objectives of this operation have been passed down in phases, which included the reclamation of Malevelon Creek, and its final phase calls for the absolute annihilation of the robots. With a deadline that expires Monday (Editor’s note: Tuesday, if you live in ANZ and observe our objectively more democratic timezones — David), this could be the last time folks fight against the robots for a while.
Though Helldivers 2’s war has been a lengthy back-and-forth against both the Automatons and bug-like Terminids, there’s reason to believe that successfully finishing this operation could actually take out the bots. Just taking a look at the galactic map right now shows a war on its last legs—Just a month ago, both forces against Super Earth had a much more dominating hold on the galaxy and, at one point, were even a step away from invading its home system. Now, the Automatons barely cling to the sole system they have left, while the Terminids are still holding fast across four different sectors.
There’s also history to suggest that Helldivers 2 could let players take out the Automatons for good — namely the original Helldivers. In its own take on the galactic war narrative, Helldivers let players win or lose against the rival factions before eventually resetting the table and beginning the conflict again. As part of this approach, players could annihilate whole factions from the game for a few weeks at a time before the developers wiped the slate clean and began again.
There’s also the matter of the third faction that’s been heavily implied to be arriving in Helldivers 2. The Illuminate, which is a faction from the original game, has been referred to inside of Helldivers 2, and signs of them have sporadically appeared, suggesting an imminent arrival. There feels like no better time for one new faction to arrive than at the elimination of another.
Something about this feels funky, but I guess we won’t know exactly why till next week. Until then, godspeed divers.
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