They're not all dead: Thousands of Helldivers 2 players are still fighting robot survivors, including me

helldivers 2 malevelon creek — (Image credit: Arrowhead Game Studios)

Did you hear the news? The Automatons are all gone. Yep, the Helldivers 2 community defeated them—they're scrapped, cooked, never coming back (according to Super Earth). We all suspect a story twist will bring them back eventually, but for now, half of the game's enemies are really unavailable to fight.

Except, the Helldivers 2 galaxy map still says there are thousands of divers active on the recently liberated Automaon planets in the Severin system. What gives?

As one of those players still able to fight bots, I barely know myself, but I can confirm the map isn't lying. Some players are still able to access Maia and other Automaton planets, as shared by several Reddit users in the last 24 hours.

"IT DOESN'T END TILL I SAY IT DOES," wrote user fulfilled.

"We're still fighting 'em on Maia! SEND DUDES," said Suvaius.

If I hadn't seen it for myself, I'd just assume these people were sharing old screenshots, but it's true: there are divers out there hunting down the last survivors of the robot army. Unfortunately, that means the parades on Super Earth celebrating the "full eradication" of the Automatons are premature.

I think it has something to do with players returning to Helldivers 2 who haven't played in several days. The last time I played solo was a few days ago. I was in the middle of a campaign on the robot planet Maia, so when I logged in today my ship was still in orbit there and able to select a campaign.

The mission loaded normally and then there I was, surrounded by Automatons as if the war never ended. Of course, if I wanted to keep up my robo lingering, I probably shouldn't have solo dove into a level 7 mission without a shield backpack. The bots tore through my five lives in record time, then I was back on my ship. This time I wasn't able to pick another campaign, officially ending my extended stay on the Automaton front.

Hey guys... im still fighting the bots from r/Helldivers

I wonder, then, how long the ~5,000 players still on Maia at the time of this writing can keep it up. That number was around double last night, suggesting more stragglers are getting booted off the planet after wrapping up their campaigns.

It was bit different jumping into a bot mission knowing it'd probably be my last (for a while, anyway). This time two days ago, nobody knew Arrowhead would be so bold as to lock off an entire faction from the game. I savored the bot drops and took time to appreciate the little things that make fighting Automatons so fun: their flanking tactics, ranged attacks, the way grunts shed bolts when you shoot 'em, or the satisfying pop of a Devastator's head when you nail its only front weak spot perfectly.

I'm grateful I received the opportunity to say goodbye to the sorry scrapheaps before they truly enter extinction—a privilege millions of divers were denied. I took a picture to mark the occasion:

helldivers 2 maia — My last screenshot of the Automaton front. Captured April 8, 2024. (Image credit: Arrowhead Game Studios)

Morgan has been writing for PC Gamer since 2018, first as a freelancer and currently as a staff writer. He has also appeared on Polygon, Kotaku, Fanbyte, and PCGamesN. Before freelancing, he spent most of high school and all of college writing at small gaming sites that didn't pay him. He's very happy to have a real job now. Morgan is a beat writer following the latest and greatest shooters and the communities that play them. He also writes general news, reviews, features, the occasional guide, and bad jokes in Slack. Twist his arm, and he'll even write about a boring strategy game. Please don't, though.