Helldivers 2 goes full “robot Vietnam” with new mission types against the horrible Automatons

The Automatons have somehow got worse

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Helldivers 2’s horrible Automatons are officially expanding, and they’ve quietly introduced a brand new game mode to the hit shooter.

Helldivers 2 has been dubbed ‘robot Vietnam,’ if you didn’t already know, and that’s chiefly because of its terrifying robot armies, which descend on players like vicious killing machines. Now, the official Helldivers 2 Twitter account has revealed that the Automaton threat is expanding throughout the galaxy, as new worlds are coming under threat.

Breaking: Automatons Launch Brazen Assault on Multiple Well-Populated Planets pic.twitter.com/f6Idb6xyTGFebruary 15, 2024

At first glance, this seems to just be a fun little community thing from developer Arrowhead Game Studios, hyping up the battle against the big awful robots. It’s actually an announcement of an in-game change, where the Automaton armies have spread to new worlds on the Helldivers 2 big intergalactic war table.

This means there are now new worlds to fight against the Automatons in Helldivers 2. It also means that the defence-based missions are now live in the shooter - missions where you have to evacuate a certain amount of citizens as quickly as possible while the Automatons try and slaughter them all.

When Helldivers 2 first launched, PlayStation players in particular noted that there was a Trophy for completing a Defence Mission, but found there were none in the game. With the new update today, those mission types have finally gone live, so the Trophy can finally be obtained.

From the sounds of things, the new missions are proving tough for even veteran Helldivers. “I played one of these new escort defense missions on medium, and it was genuinely harder than any other mission I’ve done on extreme,” wrote one Twitter user in response.

“The planet defense mission is really bad… it’s almost impossible to finish even at T4 with 4 level 30 Helldivers. The spawn rate of enemies is ridiculous please consider lowering it,” another user wrote. Better brace yourself if you’re planning on holding down the fort against the Automatons for the glory of Super Earth this week.

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Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.

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