Helldivers 2 hackers get their "pet fish summarily executed," while a new Major Order sends us back to fight the bots that mutineers ignored

Helldivers 2 Polar Patriots Warbond helldivers standing in snow
(Image credit: Sony)

There's trouble in galactic paradise this week, as Helldivers 2 developers need to contend with hackers and mutineers disturbing Major Orders.

Just yesterday, Helldivers 2 cheaters turned one of the game's seemingly hardest collective community missions into light work that was over in mere hours. "Super Earth High Command has detected a large batch of counterfeit samples within the delivery of the last Major Order," an in-game dispatch reads. "As is customary, Medals have been awarded to all Helldivers who honourably performed their duties, and the ones submitting false samples have had their pet fish summarily executed."

Developer Arrowhead Game Studios is now trying to occupy players over the weekend with another Automaton-focused Major Order, but that might be a similarly risky endeavour. Self-proclaimed "Chaosdivers" previously ignored the last bot-centric Major Order, letting the faction creep ever closer to Super Earth because, in some of their words, "I bet Arrowhead does not have a working Super Earth biome ready to go."

Another in-game transmission explains that "the Automatons have crept closer to Super Earth," and kind of desperately begs that Helldivers should "launch an assault on the Automatons to push them back" - probably while Arrowhead figures out how to write away this plot point, in case they really don't have a Super Earth biome prepared. The Major Order tasks the community with defending three bot attacks, starting with the liberation of Curia, which is currently 70% underway, so maybe the mutineers have subsided for now.

Either way, all players will have temporary access to the "Orbital Gas Strike" Stratagem because counterfeit sample providers have been sent to "Chemical Weapon facilities" in the game's canon (there's no actual word on what, if anything, awaits the cheaters who burned through the last Major Order.)

The Helldivers 2 CEO said some developers were also “disappointed” with Escalation of Freedom reaction: “The update had a bunch of nice stuff that isn’t being talked about.”

Freelance contributor

Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that's vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he'll soon forget.