It's Helldivers 2's Liberty Day, so break out your shovels and play Arrowhead's patriotic new Whack-a-Terminid browser game before it's gone

A screenshot of Helldivers 2, depicting a Helldiver saluting while wearing an anthropomorphic facemask

(Image credit: Sony)

It's Oct. 26—the day Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas came out, and also Helldivers 2's in-universe holiday Liberty Day, celebrating all the times we spent together splattering the stars with blood and burying any dissent beneath busted-up robot parts.

It's enough to make a man shed a tear into his liber-tea, and if you can get away from your major orders long enough for a fun little distraction, Arrowhead's celebrating the occasion with a browser game called Whack-a-Terminid.

SWEET LIBERTY! Line up to WHACK A TERMINID! Available today only! We made this bit from last year's LD schedule a reality. whack-a-terminid.libertyday.se leaderboards will be published later today in the HD2 discord!
— @baskinator.bsky.social (@baskinator.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2025-10-26T16:35:17.794Z

It's a rudimentary, fast-paced version of whack-a-mole where you bash buggy heads in with your shovel as they crawl out onto your screen. A life bar rapidly depletes as you idle or miss a bug for too long, and your score suffers if you accidentally hit one of your fellow Helldivers, who pop up from time to time. It's pretty straightforward even on the toughest "Helldive" difficulty, but it's a cute aside to celebrate a game players can't get enough of.

If you don't like it, tough: a disclaimer at the bottom of the screen reads, "HELLDIVERS experiencing anything less than solemn gratitude, heartfelt elation, and overwhelming patriotism should report to their nearest democratic officer immediately."

And if you do like it, or just want to give it a shot, you'd better hurry. It's only available today as Arrowhead community manager Katherine Baskin's Bluesky post notes, and a leaderboard will go live later today that shares the best scores as submitted by players with a connected Discord account.

Here's hoping it comes back, if only because it seems like a not-insignificant amount of effort went into it. It's a fun little score chaser, if nothing else. Maybe we can hope for a return when we next remember Beach.

Justin first became enamored with PC gaming when World of Warcraft and Neverwinter Nights 2 rewired his brain as a wide-eyed kid. As time has passed, he's amassed a hefty backlog of retro shooters, CRPGs, and janky '90s esoterica. Whether he's extolling the virtues of Shenmue or troubleshooting some fiddly old MMO, it's hard to get his mind off games with more ambition than scruples. When he's not at his keyboard, he's probably birdwatching or daydreaming about a glorious comeback for real-time with pause combat. Any day now...

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