Helldivers 2's latest order sure looks like a setup for players to liberate their own mech suits… for democracy!

A propaganda poster of a giant mech from Helldivers 2, stood powerfully among a stark orange-and-black background.

(Image credit: Arrowhead Games.)

Helldivers 2 has announced the latest twist in its galactic war, and it's one that will have Helldivers rushing in en masse. The planet under attack by the Automatons is Tien Kwan, a name that will be familiar to any liberty-loving patriot who saw Arrowhead's mech tease a few days ago: Yep, this is the place where they make mechs.

Now, the question of why an Automaton might want an exosuit is just the type of commie reaction I'd expect from someone who isn't currently diving into Tien Kwan at a rate of knots. Make no mistake that if these robots get hold of more robot bits they'll probably be comforted or something, and such shall not be tolerated.

This is the kind of situation where one name is going to be on every player's lips: Joel. The Helldivers 2 game master is watching over the game's meta-structure for moments such as this, and no matter how many soldiers Super Earth sends, the Automatons won't be going down easily: the whole job is ensuring that the live service side doesn't feel like most every other game.

THIS IS NOT A DRILL! Our factories are under attack, halting all output. Helldivers have been deployed to liberate Tien Kwan! pic.twitter.com/NM4A26jZlhMarch 7, 2024

Even though the game has only been out for a few weeks, the Tien Kwan liberation follows on from one of the game's first great emergent moments. The liberation of Veld saw an absolute flood of players, stung by collectively failing the previous major order, swarming that planet as soon as the order to do so was given. The opening hours made it look like this was going to be a cakewalk. Then someone fiddled with some dials and things got very complicated and messy.

Helldivers 2 has come absolutely roaring out of the gate, and shows no signs of slowing down. The game just received its first major balance patch, which showed Arrowhead isn't scared to go in with the nerfhammer where it's needed (and wow, can those chaingun players moan about it). And in other metagame news, there's an even more intriguing prospect: some players think Arrowhead's been 'leaking' unreleased elements into random games.

Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."