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The Automaton Collective has begun its invasion of the outer planets. Helldivers everywhere flocked to defend the civilians and our perfect way of life. The Automatons proved to be no match for the experienced Helldivers, up until one point. In the most recent Helldivers 2 missions in which you have to escort a number of civilian scientists from their homes to a dropship, there is an incredible number of Automatons constantly spawning. So much so that it made those missions near-impossible to complete. And, naturally, the community was not too happy about that. No matter the difficulty level, these missions seem to be too hard to complete, granting no rewards. And of course, players have taken to social platforms, such as Reddit, to vent their frustrations.
Are the Near-Impossible Helldivers 2 Defense Missions Intentional?
The issue with escort missions is that Automaton Dropships appear too often. As you start the mission, you have around 30 seconds before the Dropships come, and as soon as you deal with one, another one appears. They keep coming until your survival becomes the main goal, let alone escorting civilians. Even if you do try and escort them, there are so many Automatons around that rarely a single civilian survives to get to the dropship. And you have to escort at least 20 of them, depending on the difficulty level.
Some fans speculate that this was intentional, representing the sheer might of the Automaton invasion. Most fans were not too happy with that, and some, like brendodido, stated that it is a waste of time: “If it’s truly intentional that we’re supposed to just lose then people are just going to stop playing these missions since it’s just a waste of time and you get no rewards for it. If this is supposed to be a scripted loss then they need to design the missions in a way that makes it still worth participating.”
Others are persistent in the idea that it is intentional, that it is kinda scripted for us to mostly fail these escort missions, as redditor Bortthog posted. The idea is that after a while, with just a couple of days left to complete the Major Order, something big will happen. “We very clearly are not meant to win these first waves of defense”
- Enlist in the Helldivers and join the fight for freedom across a hostile galaxy in a fast, frantic, and ferocious third-person shooter.
- Become a Legend – You will be assembled into squads of up to four Helldivers and assigned strategic missions. Watch each other’s back – friendly fire is an unfortunate certainty of war, but victory without teamwork is impossible.
- Loadouts – Rain down freedom from above, sneak through enemy territory, or grit your teeth and charge head-first into the jaws of combat. How you deliver liberty is your choice; you’ll have access to a wide array of explosive firepower, life-saving armour and battle-changing stratagems… the jewel in every Helldiver’s arsenal.
- Requisition – Super Earth recognises your hard work with valuable Requisition. Use it to access different rewards that benefit you, your squad, your destroyer ship and our overall war effort.
- Threats – Everything on every planet wants you dead. That’s what we’re dealing with. Each enemy has distinct and unpredictable characteristics, tactics, and behaviour – but they all fight ferociously and without fear or morality.
Could it possibly be a Bug?
However, there is a popular idea that those Helldivers 2 escort missions are actually bugged. When you look at them more closely, you’ll see that the intended duration for those missions is around 40 minutes. Anyone who has played those missions knows that the real duration is 15 minutes. The idea, proposed by Ok_Newspaper4692, is that the number of enemies intended for a 40-minute mission is crammed into a 15-minute one, and that’s why those tough Automaton waves are so frequent. More and more people have jumped on the bandwagon, with TwevOWNED saying: “The reason why bots are spawning on top of each other endlessly is because there are 25 minutes worth of drops that haven’t been redeemed yet.”
As the invasion has just begun, and there has been no word from the High Command (Arrowhead), we’ll have to wait and see what the truth is. There has been a quick patch deployed after the fact, but it doesn’t seem to address these particular missions. Until then, stay strong fellow Helldivers.
For more Helldivers 2 articles, take a look at Helldivers 2 Roadmap, Devs Now Scrambling to Hire After Huge Success, and Where to Find Bile Spewers in Helldivers 2 and How to Kill Them.