Helldivers 2 player drops 16 consecutive 500kg payloads on the game's new gunship factory for science—discovers hellbombs are their only reliable kryptonite

The Super Earth Spokesperson in Helldivers 2 looks very confused as a massive explosion rocks the earth behind him.

(Image credit: Arrowhead Games)

Helldivers 2 has several objectives that can be flattened with enough heavy ordinance—walking barrages, orbital lasers, and a community favourite: the 500kg bomb, an explosive payload so huge it feels like a mini-nuke when it goes off.

In case you aren't carrying any of those, though, Helldivers 2 is nice enough to give you a hellbomb stratagem for its 'destroy X' objectives—which is a nice (and slower) alternative for the unprepared. Unless you're fighting Automaton gunships, in which case: it's the only option.

As discovered by a brave member of Super Earth's R&D division on the game's subreddit (thanks, Gamesradar), the new Automaton gunship factories are impervious to everything but a Hellbomb payload. User keiXrome tested a whole host of heavy ordnance, and—nothing, nada, nyet. Here's a full list of what they tried out:

Six 380mm Orbital Barrages.
One orbital laser, which they determine is "useless".
Eight precision strikes.
30 EAT-17 disposable anti-tank rockets.
An entire game's worth of plasma volleys from the Quasar Cannon.
16 consecutive 500kg orbital bombs.

Nothing left a dent on the factory, which begs the question—why the hell aren't the Automatons scrapping these things and using them to armour their walkers?

If you've never tried to call a hellbomb down on an objective before, you might wonder what the big deal is—sure, it's a little more effort, but that's a fun tactical challenge. Well, yes, but also no. Hellbombs need to be called down, after which you can punch in a code to their terminals to start a countdown to doomsday.

The only problem is, said hellbombs can be destroyed by enemy forces, and the automatons are smart enough to zero in on them. If this happens, you need to try again—and guess what Automaton unit is very good at sniping a fragile bomb from the air? Gunships. Automaton gunship factories come packaged with the exact counter to their only weakness. Cyberstan doesn't play fair.

Some players, however, report that the SEAF nuke appears to work as well. Issue being, you can only access these via an optional side objective, where it's possible to load in other shells to the artillery cannon. If you grab a handful of pick 'n' mix shells, you're not actually told what payload's up next (though they do fire in order), making this alternative unreliable at best.

Ultimately—these things are tough to the point of being a little immersion-breaking. I've got no issues with an objective that's difficult by design, but I can't really think of a reason why 16 whole 500kg bombs shouldn't destroy a single factory tower—but hey. Maybe they're just built different.

Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.