Helldivers 2 players find creative ways to punish toxic hosts: 'I ran with your super samples to the edge of the mission area, and kept on running'

For the most part cooperative games are a great place to enjoy meeting other people and hanging out with them for about a half-hour, then never ever speaking with them again and also not knowing who they are. In the case of Helldivers 2, these are all done in the spirit of shared chaos and hilarity the shooter has become known for.

Some hosting players, however, decry such fun-having as detrimental. They insist others play just as they do, or use an arbitrary set of weapons and supporting strategems they have chosen to be "the meta." When others break these rules they go full toxic player, giving orders and threatening to kick from the game those who won't comply.

It's a problem Arrowhead game studios is very aware of, and wants to fix. Earlier this month Arrowhead boss Johan Pilestedt, in a fit of democratic pique, even solicited ideas from the broader sphere of social media on how to fix the problem of toxic hosts.

The creativity of people playing the game, however, shows no limits. Earlier this week a reddit post popped up from one Snazzlefraxas, who upon encountering a terrible host made the most of the situation, rallying the team and attempting to salvage everyone's valuable scientific samples—the resources that let you upgrade your cool Super Destroyer ship in Helldivers. The toxic host, however, quickly turned on them.

"You were 10 minutes into the match with no primaries completed and one reinforce left, and you almost instantly died in front of my eyes. I picked up the precious Super Samples, steeling my reserve to deliver them to our democratic scientists back on the ship," Snazzlefraxas posted. After that, they rallied the team and improved the situation. The situation went foul soon after, when they attempted to help the host who'd threatened to kick the team unless rescued. The choice was made: Mutiny.

"As I watch my teammate B3 go down and disappear from the server, I made a desperate choice. I ran with your super samples to the edge of the mission area, and kept on running. I wish I would have stuck around to hear your pitiful complaints and whining when you realized what I had done, but I was already tired of hearing it," Snazzlefraxas said.

Others chimed in some other ideas for ways to lose every single sample you have. I'll add my own: Jump in the deepest water you can find. Jump off one of those large cliffs into the map-separating crevasses. Or, my personal favorite, find one of those glowing lava holes that exist on some volcanically active planets and jump in that sucker. Not only will you leave a nice big splashy kerboom, but those samples will be gone.

Jon Bolding is a games writer and critic with an extensive background in strategy games. When he's not on his PC, he can be found playing every tabletop game under the sun.