Helldivers 2 players have committed treason by protesting its latest patch, allowing a wave of bots to creep dangerously close to their homes

The latest Helldivers 2 update has been received with a lot of criticism, mainly because of some changes to the flamethrower. This has caused a full-on firestorm of criticism.

A fascinating form of protest appears to be occurring in the game (thanks GamesRadar). One player writes on the subreddit of the game, "Let the robots advance, and let Super Earth burn," showing a map with an Automaton front, which is... getting a little closer to Super Earth, chief.

Let the Bots move forward. Let the Super Earth burn. Helldivers from r/Helldivers

"Together, we banished the bug-tyranny in Meridia. But you betrayed me and you betrayed all of us. You stole the power of the Helldivers, and lied to your own citizens. If you do not seize this opportunity, I will. Let it be war from the skies of Super Earth all the way to the Galactic rim. Let the stars fall, let the seas boil.

This dramatic speech was taken directly from the trailer for Warhammer 40K: The Horus Heresy. It refers to an event in which Horus became a traitor and led rebellion against the Emperor.

Helldivers.io reports that the Automatons are losing the battle by 1.2% per hour.

There's one snag in this particular story: the current Major Order assigns divers to defend Troost and Vandalon 4. One would assume that the idea was to create a scenario where players had to balance a battle on two fronts. This means that one of four things is happening.

1. The players are MMO-brained and simply following the big brands.
2. The players are attempting to zerg-rush the two target planets, before returning to Super Earth's front.
3. By overcommitting on the Western Front, players are committing themselves to a malicious and heretical act.
4. All of the above.

I will say that a pithy defense of 2,000 players is cause for concern. The game currently has around 38,000 players scrapping bots. Helldivers 2 has jokingly encouraged players to deliberately lose. What happens when they do?

That's an excellent question. In the Helldivers 1, it was possible to lose the Galactic War in its entirety. Democracy would simply move to a new Super Earth and stake its claim. Helldivers 2 has yet to be involved in its first war, so I don't know what will happen if the enemy captures Super Earth.

If the heretics win it will be a very interesting problem for Arrowhead. Super Earth Defence, where divers shoot bots on the same automatically generated maps, would be anticlimactic. The game's developers are still trying to find their new rhythm, so a rush to create, say, the urban warfare maps that have been requested would be a tall task.

I learned that the review bomb war in '24 was not a good time to underestimate a Helldivers 2 player protest.