Update 4/1/2024 at 11:10 a.m. PT / 2:10 p.m. ET: As I covered originally in the text below, the Helldivers 2 fought for and eventually captured Malevelon Creek this morning for the first time since the co-op shooter's launch. Now, though, there's a new Major Order: one to hold the line on the Creek — as well as Ubanea and Draupnir — against Automaton counterattack for roughly two and a half days.
"The Automatons, clearly having calculated their impending shutdown, have launched a counterattack," reads the in-game description of the order. "Desperate as it is, should this re-invasion succeed, Operation Swift Disassembly could be jeopardized. Hold your ground."
If players are able to keep all three planets under Super Earth control until the Major Order expires very early on Thursday morning, they'll finish it and earn 40 Warbond Medals. However, if the Automatons have control of one or more of these worlds by then, the campaign will end in failure. Note that to successfully contribute to the defense of these planets, you'll need to complete planetary operations, which are the groups of missions you can see when you select a world on the galaxy map.
Currently, Malevelon Creek and Draupnir are secure, though Ubanea has come under attack by the bots. Players should do their best to complete as many defense campaigns here as quickly and as soon as possible so that the invasion is thwarted before one of the other planets inevitably gets assaulted as well.
Despite the valiant efforts of Liberty's finest on the front lines, Helldivers 2 players weren't able to liberate Tibit due to some unfortunate setbacks. Keep that titanium-helmed head of yours up high though, space marines, because a new Major Order has come in: it's time to finally take Malevelon Creek.
Malevelon Creek — colloquially and lovingly referred to as "Space Vietnam" by many Helldivers 2 fans — is the most famous of all the game's planets, and has also proven to be one of the hardest ones to liberate. Supply lines have kept fronts on the gloomy jungle-covered world open since the co-op shooter's launch in early February, but due to its brutal conditions and some particularly stiff Automaton resistance, Super Earth's forces have rarely been able to make significant progress in the fight to oust its entrenched robot defenders.
The resolve of the Helldivers in this theater has never wavered, though, and as a result, thousands of players have kept a near-constant liberation campaign going on the planet for weeks — even when their stubborn determination to make the Creek run with oil negatively impacts other important Galactic War conflicts. This is precisely what happened over the weekend, actually; roughly 25% of all players were fighting tooth and nail for the hazy bot-controlled world, which ended up contributing to the failure to free Tibit before the Major Order for it expired. All the liberation progress made on Malevelon Creek carried over to the new Major Order to take it, however, and as a result, Super Earth is poised to capture it in record time.
As I write this, Malevelon Creek is already at about 97.25% liberated, with this nifty Helldivers 2 Galactic War live map projecting that it'll be in democratic hands within a few hours. The directive to liberate it just came in this morning, so barring any abrupt twists from developer Arrowhead's enigmatic Game Master Joel, it'll be taken in what will undoubtedly be remembered as one of the quickest-ever Major Order operations.
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Something important to note, though, is that should things go awry somehow, players won't have much time to recover; the Major Order to liberate Malevelon Creek is set to expire under 24 hours from now on Tuesday morning. Joel probably gave this mission such a short time limit since we started it with a huge head start, so it's critical that the Helldivers press their advantage and capture the Creek ASAP.
Should the Major Order be finished successfully, everyone in the community will be awarded a handsome bounty of 35 Warbond Medals. These can be used to unlock various gameplay items and cosmetics from any of Helldivers 2's battle pass-style Warbonds, including the recently released Cutting Edge Warbond that contains many new energy and arc weapons as well as some cool armor sets with a perk that reduces incoming electric damage by 95% (basically, it makes sure your teammates can't accidentally zap you to death with an Arc Thrower or Tesla Tower stratagem).
Notably, the completion of this Major Order will mark the first time Malevelon Creek has been liberated, as players have never gotten this far in their efforts to take it until now. Whether or not we can hold it remains to be seen, but I have a feeling Helldivers 2 fans will fight like hell to keep this particular planet under our control.
In other news, the Galactic War against both the Automaton menace and the Terminid bug hordes has been bolstered recently by the arrival of two new stratagem support weapons. The first is a special Heavy Machine Gun that features heavy recoil, but exceptional damage and armor penetration; the second is a powerful Quasar Cannon with infinite ammo and the anti-armor and explosive capabilities of a rocket launcher, but a slow charge up time.
Helldivers 2 is available now for $39.99 on both PS5 and PC, and so far, it's one of the best PC games of the year. Notably, the game also supports cross-platform play between PS5 and PC.
