Rarely is there an uneventful moment in Helldivers 2, and what Arrowhead officially has cooking now with its latest tease is incredibly exciting. Arrowhead hasn’t been coy about lingering tethers between both games, either. However, what players can expect from available enemy factions will differ depending on their knowledge of what came before, and the sequel does not make transparent efforts in most cases to ensure that players are fully aware of the series’ rich lore. As the stars have aligned, a massive leak has begun to manifest in Helldivers 2, with confirmation that the Automatons will lead us back to Cyberstan.
Cyberstan is Officially on the Menu for Helldivers 2
In terms of upcoming updates/events, anyone who’s followed Helldivers 2 lore or can fairly estimate what enemy faction is overdue for an update will likely predict that the Automatons are soon to receive a comeuppance, and in a big way. Plus, if you’ve been perusing leaks at all that sprout here and there, particularly from Helldivers 2 leaker IronS1ghts, you’d know that there was reason to believe that players would chase the bot faction back to their creators’ homeworld, the Valdis sector’s Cyberstan. Now, following the latest Major Order’s success, a reveal has been made that explicitly references Helldivers’ Cyberstan and teases the inevitable task players will undertake in liberating it.
Helldivers 2’s Major Order Success and Vessel 00 Reveal
“Vessel 00 is indicated to be a spaceship that departed from the planet Cyberstan in 2180, approximately 4 years prior to the initial Automaton attack. The cargo and destination of that voyage is unknown, but it is referred to as the final one the ship made. Vessel 00 is referred to in exultation – evidence of Automaton programming to express reverence towards it. It is additionally referred to as their seed or origin. This information is the first to definitively connect the Automatons to Cyberstan, a rehabilitation planet invaded by them in the early days of the war.”
Interestingly, this dispatch makes it clear that Cyberstan is not a planet the Helldivers will advance on at the moment, suggesting that Arrowhead has plans it’ll put into action sooner that may or may not involve Helldivers 2’s Automatons.
“Cyberstan is deep behind enemy lines, and highly defended. Its liberation remains the top strategic objective on the Automaton front. Current operational demands prevent its liberation in the short time. But in time, it will be liberated, and the secrets of the Automatons will be revealed.”
I’m curious as to why Arrowhead would reveal a plan of attack on Cyberstan so soon if it isn’t intending to fulfill it yet. But, perhaps Arrowhead wished to give players a taste of what’s to come in Helldivers 2’s future, all while it buries its head in development and performance issues—including, in Arrowhead’s own words:
- Some key crash fixes
- Fixed the primary weapon/Side-arm audio that stops during a mission
- Minor performance improvements
- Long overdue bug fixes, like Charger footstep sounds (pretty useful) or weapon audio stopping mid mission
Helldivers 2 Leaks Foresaw ‘New Cyberstan’ a While Back
It isn’t as if a return to Cyberstan is a completely bewildering or unpredictable happenstance, and there is more than enough reason to believe that it won’t be quite like the Cyberstan Helldivers players remember. Indeed, Helldivers 2’s Automaton homeworld leak has long suggested that players would visit what the bots have terraformed into ‘New Cyberstan.’
It is fascinating, then, that Helldivers 2 has outwardly expressed that players will soon tackle Cyberstan in what is sure to be the most nightmarish bot encounter we’ve been confronted with thus far. And, if Arrowhead can find worthwhile and reasonable solutions to Helldivers 2’s performance problems in the meantime, it’ll be doubly thrilling to see what state the game is in by then.