Helldivers 2's Automatons are back, which nobody could've seen coming

The wildly successful Helldivers 2 keeps bringing in one live narrative twist after another. Notably, even though Super Earth celebrated the total defeat of the game’s Automaton faction, the celebrations appear to have been premature. Indeed, the Automatons are back, and they’re back with a vengeance.

As announced on the game’s official Discord and Twitter, Automatons made a grand return onto the galactic stage just moments ago. Super Earth claims this was “suspected all along,” naturally, but the scale of the bots’ return is quite unprecedented. The Automatons’ new, freshened-up fleet is tens of thousands of warships strong, and it’s begun its massive onslaught at the Valdis Sector, seemingly gunning it yet once more toward Cyberstan.

Automatons aren’t going anywhere anytime soon in Helldivers 2, after all

As momentous as the mandatory one-minute break awarded to all Helldiver forces following their defeat of the local Automaton garrisons may have been, Super Earth’s victory was anything but long-lasting. Not only were Helldivers moved on over to fight against the Terminids almost instantly (albeit with a snazzy new cape to memorialize Malevelon Creek), but the victory was very short-lived to begin with. The Automatons are back seemingly stronger than ever, ready to push back Super Earth and secure Cyberstan once and for all.

The success of the Automatons’ return is, of course, going to depend on Helldiver forces themselves. It was the players’ strategic approach to dealing with local Automaton forces that ensured the victory for Super Earth in the first place, and if the whole community rallies against the bots to push them back, it might not end up being a wash. The Democratic Detonation Warbond, which is coming out in just a few days’ time, is bound to give Helldivers a few new sticks to smack the robots with, but will it be enough?

On Discord, the full “Super Earth” statement says that “A massive Automaton Invasion Fleet, comprising tens of thousands of warships, arrived from FTL jump to the Valdis Sector and overran nearly every planet in just hours. The Reclamation has begun. The Automatons are back!” In no uncertain terms, this statement makes it clear that Helldivers 2‘s game master, Joel, has rolled up his sleeves to redefine the galactic battlefield, memes be damned.

A loss for Super Earth is definitely possible, then. Possibly even guaranteed, depending on how hard Arrowhead Studios might want to push the playerbase around. Loss, however, comes part and parcel in Helldivers 2, and whatever happens, it’s bound to be interesting.