With the Automaton invasion, Helldivers 2 proved that failure is part of the point

Hell divers 2 was compared Spaceship Troopers when it was first released, but since then the squad-based third-person shooter has moved closer to the post-Judgment Day future in Terminator. Although the first mission assignment, to retake territory from bugs called Terminids, was a success, things went downhill when the game introduced the Automatons, the much harder-to-kill robots that attack Super Earth planets.

Just this week, players lost the planet Malevelon Creek to the Automatons, narrowly freeing Mort after around 10 million Helldiver deaths, according to a report in the official publication. Hell divers 2 Disagreement (via Game Radar). Despite some gains, the Automatons have pushed back Super Earth’s forces for the time being. Starting Thursday, players will see a message stating that the Grand Order to liberate planets under Automaton control has been a failure, and players must change course:

Despite the valiant efforts of the Helldivers, Automaton marauders have invaded Super Earth’s territory. Patriotic citizens mourn as their sufficiently sized homes burn to the ground. Citizens of Super-Earth demand justice, and they will receive it. But for now, the Terminid Control System is ready for activation.

While players can still fight on Automaton worlds, most will likely shift their priorities to Terminid territory, starting with Veld, which contains a hive that “escaped detection and has been breeding undemocratic vermin for weeks.”

Hell divers 2 launched with the Terminids, and although they proved to be challenging, players united and were able to complete the first major order and reap the rewards. That wasn’t the case with the Automatons, who proved to be much stronger than their organic insect brethren. Besides the fact that even the smallest units are covered in hard-to-pierce armor, the game introduced missions that required much more strategy and teamwork than the previous ones. Together with some surprising real-time work from the developers at Arrowhead Game Studios, the failure was inevitable.

The mission type that specifically fooled players was escort missions, which required Helldivers to help researchers and other civilians trapped on planets invaded by Automaton fleets escape to an extraction point. Sounds simple enough at first glance: follow some unarmed civilians as they run from one side of a relatively small area to the other. It was also a common goal among the Terminids. However, anyone who’s played one of these Automaton missions will tell you that after you’ve been saved about ten times, you’re bombarded with all kinds of Automatons. And because these missions take place in a small space with a lot of bottlenecks, and the NPCs aren’t the best at self-preservation, it’s easy for players and civilians to die over and over again… and over again.

Players on the Helldivers subreddit have been trying to come up with strategies for this specific mission type since the beginning of the campaign. The consensus was to have a full team of four people, with three people luring enemies to the outskirts of the mission area and one person focusing on stealth tactics to escort civilians (that means using smoke strategies or special recon armor sets) . However, this only works if people are willing to communicate continuously via voice chat. Depending on your difficulty setting, you can still encounter extremely high spawn rates that will decimate your team no matter how coordinated you are. And with its 40-minute clock that is also the case a lot of time for things to go terribly wrong. Plus, players have reported bugssuch as NPCs standing in front of the extraction point without entering.

I spoke to a player who identified himself to Polygon as Alessio, aka Zarrusso on Reddit, who posted clear, comprehensive visual guide on how to tackle these missions this week, basically merging all the disparate Reddit threads and YouTube videos on the subject. The guide suggests landing as far away from the target as possible, along with some strategies for resting.

Image: Arrowhead Game Studios/Sony Interactive Entertainment

“On difficulty 6 (Extreme) and all of the above, the difficulty skyrockets and we couldn’t kill the enemies fast enough and the civilians kept dying after taking even one step outside,” he wrote. “So after getting some advice from YouTube and Reddit and just playing through the missions, I put that little strategy together. And now I’m playing those missions on difficulty 7, 8, and 9, and I’ve completed about 90 percent of my escort missions.

These escort missions require a lot more strategy than others. Some Automaton objectives are nearly identical to Terminid’s (kill a certain number of enemies; launch an ICBM), so they didn’t have a major barrier to entry and therefore didn’t require nearly as much coordination between players, especially on lower difficulties. “The other missions don’t require as much strategy. On lower difficulties you can do them almost without thinking, but you still need to bring the right weapons,” Zarrusso explained.

However, the Automaton escort missions presented a completely different challenge for players, despite being similar to the previous ones. This led to many people spamming simpler 15-minute objectives instead. With so many failures on the plate, it is no wonder that the community has not succeeded in their collective struggle.

But it could also be that failure has always been the point. In a pre-release video, deputy game director Sagar Beroshi revealed Hell divers 2 would have a game master who would introduce twists and story moments, watch players as they complete missions, and respond in real time. Players still have a degree of control over how mission assignments play out, but just like in a tabletop RPG, the GM will move players in a specific direction, sometimes with a bit of improvisation. This could be something small, like giving players an extra trick mid-round, or something that has a much more global impact.

“The enemies have goals, right? They will look at what you did, respond to the way you behaved – that is, you as a community – and respond in a way that changes the face of the galaxy afterward,” Beroshi said.

A recent PC Gamer article includes a short interview with CEO Johan Pilestedt, who explained that this developer’s name is Joel and that he apparently “takes his work very seriously.”

‘Joel, in his infinite wisdom, concluded: ‘What happens when a faction wins part of a war? Well, they mine everything.” That’s where the fire mines segment came from,” Pilestedt gave as an example, referring to the period when players were given free access to the fire mines strategy.

Hell divers 2 will continue to surprise players with these tactics. “We have built many systems into the game where the Game Master has a lot of control over the playing experience. It’s something we’re constantly developing based on what’s happening in the game,” said Pilestedt. “And as part of the roadmap, there are things we want to keep secret because we want to surprise and delight.” This will probably be with mechs, those have been teased and been the subject of leaks, along with other new enemies and stories. It’s all a good reminder that your best efforts may be in vain, but you can turn the tide of war, and that makes for a more complex playing experience.