Against all odds, Helldivers 2 players only just secure the fan-favorite Orbital Napalm Barrage Stratagem we missed out on earlier this month

Helldivers 2 players may be on track to fail the current Major Order, but they've still managed to secure the beloved Orbital Napalm Barrage Stratagem that they missed out on unlocking before.

Earlier this month, Helldivers 2 players were given their first chance to unlock the Orbital Napalm Barrage – a powerful Stratagem that can effectively delete any democracy-hating Terminids from the area in a series of cinematic explosions. Unfortunately, Super Earth's finest weren't able to kill the 500 million required Automatons in time to do so, and while Helldivers 2's Ministry of Defence seemingly took pity on us and allowed us the temporary use of the Stratagem for a while, the hope was that another opportunity would soon roll around in order for us to try and unlock it again, and over the weekend, Arrowhead delivered.

On Friday, we were given our latest Major Order – kill 45 million Bile Spewers and 100 million Warriors in a bug-squashing extravaganza in an effort to reduce the Terminid population, which is "threatening to reach exponentially explosive rates of reproduction," according to community manager Katherine Baskin. However, while not a direct requirement to complete the Major Order, it was added that if we managed to successfully liberate the Automaton-controlled planets Tarsh and Mastia during the duration of the Order, "it will be possible to immediately deploy the Orbital Napalm Barrage fleetwide acquisition."

For long enough, it seemed that we were set to fail both of these tasks. As far as the Major Order is concerned, there are less than three hours to go, and still less than 15 million Bile Spewers were killed. Yesterday, it also seemed that the liberation requirements for Tarsh were out of reach, with one dejected Reddit user accepting: "We aren't getting the Napalm again."

Over the last few hours, though, we've been able to witness one of the greatest comebacks in recent Helldivers 2 history. Less than three hours ago, we'd managed to push Tarsh up past 88% liberated, and now, with just over two hours to go until that looming deadline, it's hit 100%. The doubters have been proven wrong, and the time for Orbital Napalm Barrage destruction is nigh.

Again, it seems very unlikely that the Major Order will be completed in time, but a win is a win – there's no doubt players will be keen to enjoy the fruits of their labor soon.

As Helldivers 2 prepares an onslaught of buffs to make the game more fun, one dev preps players for the inevitable: "Will there be more nerfs? Of course there will."