The latest Helldivers 2 order finally gives us a break from squashing bugs and turns us west to stop the Automatons enacting 'the reclamation' and... oh, oh no

A horde of automaton bots from Helldivers 2 marchers mercilessly on. — (Image credit: Arrowhead Games)

The latest Helldivers 2 major order has just gone up—and it's a simple, in-and-out mission to liberate Troost, a planet that's currently under Automaton control. This should be a nice vacation, seeing as the last handful of major orders have all been bug-related—even if bots are a lot less popular than bugs.

As someone who joined during the order to defend Automaton planets, I have 'fond' memories of brawling with these things. They were the enemy type I fought when I was still breaking in my Super Earth-issued cape—and I generally prefer how threatening they are with their relentless dropships, sniping missile launchers, and terminator war chants. Even if they're, well, harder.

An image of the next major order in Helldivers 2, which describes the Automaton's goals as being a &quot;reclamation&quot;. — (Image credit: Arrowhead Games)

So let's take a look at that Major Order: "We have discovered Automaton plans for something called 'The Reclamation'. Capturing their deep-space comms array on Troost may reveal critical intel about their plans." Oh. Oh no.

In case you aren't up-to-date with your Helldivers lore, the Automatons we fight now are sort of the vengeful children of the first game's Cyborgs, who declared independence after asking treasonous questions like 'okay, but how do we know the voting machines aren't just selecting a dictator for us?' and 'isn't this a violation of my rights?'

That's as per a decrypted message from the Helldivers 1 Twitter account from 2021, which reads: "We, the collective from Cyberstan, unanimously assert our independence from Super Earth. We have the right to defend our home from the brainwashed Helldivers. Our children, the automaton will not suffer as we have under the oppression of Super Earth!"

In the first game, whenever players would successfully conquer—I mean, democratise—Cyberstan, it would be brought under the Super Earth dictatorship—I mean, mandatory freedom. The Super Earth Construction Company also tends to take over their factories for some voluntarily mandatory labour.

From this, you can intuit that, yeah. The Automatons aren't super psyched about Cyberstan being in Super Earth control—but don't take my word for it, take theirs.

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This chilling chanting, which can often be heard in-game, is often interpreted as having the lyrics: "Cyberstan, can't keep her down" in it. In other words—yes, the Automatons are probably trying to claw their way to Cyberstan in the galaxy map's space north. The prospect of the Automatons succeeding in their mission, reclaiming Cyberstan, and waking up… something? Is haunting.

Good thing that'll never happen, since we've won every single Major Order against the Automatons. We totally didn't fail that defence order, it went super well, and your requisitions just got lost in the space post. Sudden engine failure—tragic, really.

At the time of writing there's roughly a combined 99,000 patriots battling bots on the Automaton planets of Mantes and Ustotu in an effort to reach and democratise Troost—whether it'll be a walk in the landmine-filled park or Malevelon Creek 2.0 is another question entirely.

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.