By Nathanael Peacock
Since Helldivers 2 hit the gaming sphere harder than a Hellbomb back in February, the team at Arrowhead Studios have been pumping out minor updates on a regular cadence to keep the Warriors of Freedom happy. Thus far, these have been Premium Warbond updates, a handful of new weapons and a couple of new enemy types like the Termanid Shriekers and Automaton Factory Striders.
And while we still don’t have any updates on the return of the Illuminate faction from the original Helldivers, that black hole where planet Meridia once stood has our vote for their most likely entrance to our galaxy.
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Theory-crafting aside, on August 6th the aptly named Escalation of Freedom update is crash landing into the battlefield. It’ll bring with it a handful of new enemies, new objectives, a new difficulty level, new environmental hazards and a quality of life update with its sights set squarely on players griefing squad mates.
Get the crib notes below:
New Enemies
There are a host of new hostiles to test your firepower on, all coming to the battlefield as the latest threats to galactic liberty:
- The Impaler is a returning enemy from the original Helldivers, these subterranean barbed tentacles will burst from the ground to stab at Helldivers who venture too close.
- The Spore Charger is a new iteration of the heavy-hitting charger that barrels around in its own personal fog field to disorient and obscure helldivers before they are pummeled into the dirt.
- The Termanid Alpha Commander seems like a beefed-up Brood Commander that acts like a coordinator for the Terminid battle lines, wreaking havoc and calling in reinforcements for battles with bugs.
- For the bots, we have the new Rocket Tank, which is surely going to be a threat to any Helldivers rolling around in mech suits. The bots are also getting new supersized fortresses, likely in the highest difficulties and the new combat rank 10 missions outlined below. There is also reference to “other bot surprises” so we’ll see what that amounts to (the announcement video showed a heavily armed and armoured AT-ST style chicken walker that is likely a suped-up Scout Strider).
Super Helldives
As of today, Rank 9 has been the highest quest difficulty for Helldivers to take on, and for anyone who’s attempted those missions, it’s a storm of bots, rockets, bile titans and chargers. However, as the forces of liberty are yet to meet their equal in the bot or automaton forces, Super Earth has cleared a new difficulty level.
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The new Rank 10 missions promise more enemies, more varied enemy types and of course the larger enemy bases for Termanids and Automatons.
Environmental Updates & Objectives
There is a new environmental variant coming to swamp planets that is darker than previous, with limited fields of view and much darker environments. Similarly, the new Acid Storm weather effect will lower visibility, while also damaging the armour of Helldivers and enemies alike.
A natural progression from the hive destructions of fighting the Termainds, the latest mission for bug combat is the Retrieve Larva mission, which tasks Helldivers with collecting a backpack containing a screeching Termanid hatchling, which will apparently scream the whole way to the extraction point, calling in buggy knights in chitinous armour to save it.
Kick me? Kick you!
The last major update is a quality of life tweak for anyone who’s been kicked right at the end of a mission by a less than patriotic host. This update means that when a player is kicked they’ll take their share of the rewards with them from the mission, which should help to alleviate the sting of losing your squad to dissent.
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Lastly, the announcement video references newly developed bots entering the battlefield as well as unusual migration patterns and spore readings from the Termaniss – pointing at future updates to both sides of the ongoing conflict. Imagine a world where both forces could be present on the same planet! Terrifying thought, Democracy preserve us.
The update is coming on August 6th for all your bug bashing and bot busting needs.
