Helldivers 2 director asked players how to fight serial kickers, and the community’s got one surefire way to humble toxic hosts: throw their samples in the abyss

Players are fighting back against this unsporting behaviour in the best possible way

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Helldivers 2fans tired of toxic hosts kicking players out of missions are taking justice into their own hands.

Helldivers 2 is a blast to play with buddies, mixing intense shooting action with satirical comedy to brilliant effect as you fight to defend Managed Democracy from seemingly endless swarms of bugs and robots. Still, there are a few bad eggs who want to spoil the fun for everyone.

Earlier this month, Helldivers 2 director Johan Pilestedtasked for help from the community in tackling the issue of players kicking other playersduring higher-difficulty missions. Frequently, players have found themselves booted out for not using meta weapons or simply not following orders. With the issue still ongoing, players are taking matters into their own hands and hitting these miscreants where it hurts: their Sample supplies.

One such player is Snazzlefraxas, who, on theHelldivers 2 subreddit, revealed that during a Suicide Dive, they encountered a player “berating everyone for not knowing how to play.” Having had to follow orders and endure threats about being kicked, they watched a teammate go down and “disappear from the server” and, at that point, made a “desperate choice” to make off with the Super Samples they’d previously collected from the host player’s body. “I ran with your super samples to the edge of the mission area, and kept on running,” the player says.

Far from seeing this as a traitorous, action players have been commending Snazzlefraxas for making these non-team players pay. “Sir, you are not a traitor,” says one. “What you did was sabotage a possible collaborator of our mortal enemies. He does not deserve the samples.” Another writes, “You, sir, are a hero. I salute you.”

Other Helldivers, like GundogPrime, have been taking the same approach, “I threw my body into a pit one time after some screaming [eight-year-old] was demanding the squad do exactly as he instructed or be kicked,” they explain. “But just before I did, I shot him in the face and took all the samples he’d been ‘gathering’ from the players he’d been kicking!”

Similarly, in aseparate post, player That_1__pear describes how they were kicked by another player for focusing on completing the mission rather than collecting Samples. In retaliation, their buddy scooped up their collection of Samples and dropped them off straight off a cliff.

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While it’s a shame that those Samples are not being used for the good of Super Earth, it’s a small price to pay if it prevents players from kicking others out of missions in the future.

After calling flying bugs “propaganda” and blue lasers “not real”, Helldivers 2 director crumbles as one soldier captures both in a single screenshot.

Originally from Ireland, I moved to the UK in 2014 to pursue a Games Journalism and PR degree at Staffordshire University. Following that, I’ve freelanced for GamesMaster, Games TM, Official PlayStation Magazine and, more recently, Play and GamesRadar+. My love of gaming sprang from successfully defeating that first Goomba in Super Mario Bros on the NES. These days, PlayStation is my jam. When not gaming or writing, I can usually be found scouring the internet for anything Tomb Raider related to add to my out of control memorabilia collection.

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