The last week or so has seen the Helldivers 2 community driven to make a "historic" push for Cyberstan — the headquarters of the Automaton Legion, and the chosen homeworld of the bots' Cyborg progenitors from the original game. Now, with mere hours remaining until we take Merak and open up a route for our invasion of Cyberstan, developer Arrowhead has released a deep dive showing what we can expect once we hit the ground once the Machinery of Oppression update drops on February 10 (tomorrow!) across Xbox Series X|S, PC, and PS5.
As its "Return of the Cyborgs" title clearly confirms, the Cyborgs are coming back imminently in Helldivers 2, and will fight Lady Liberty's finest tooth, nail, and servo alongside the Automatons for every inch of Cyberstan's wintry wasteland. These mechanically enhanced superhumans are bringing three new units to the bot army, with each posing a unique and distinctive threat.
First up are the Agitators, which are "disgusting" Cyborgs kitted out with heavy armor — "an inexorable tide across the battlefield" capable of commanding nearby Automatons and leading them into battle against you. Depending on how many bots there are to motivate to charge close by, I can see that ability being a huge thorn in our sides.
There are also new berserker-type foes called Radicals, which are faster, less-armored Cyborgs designed to dominate close-quarters engagements with heavy shotguns and martial arts, including a nasty roundhouse kick that'll make you ragdoll on the spot. "They use their cybernetics and bio-enhancements to push their bodies to the brink," and will no doubt try and rush you down the moment they catch wind of your presence.
Rounding out the additions is the Vox Engine, "the voice of Cyberstan." These tall super tanks are equipped with dual heavy laser cannons, artillery rockets, and a pair of gatling lasers on each of its sides to deal with flanking Helldivers, along with a big loudspeaker to "blare out delusional propaganda."
It wouldn't surprise me one bit if Arrowhead is hiding some sort of gigantic Cyborg boss unit à la the Terminids' Hive Lords up its sleeve to surprise us with, but as far as we know, these are the new enemies we'll be facing alongside all the other bots we've come to know and hate.
As for how the invasion of Cyberstan will work, the devs say "you will be required to fight your way and choose your path between the cities of Cyberstan until you reach its capital." It sounds like we'll have a few different routes to take to get to the planet's largest stronghold, which is where the final, climactic battle for it will undoubtedly unfold.
The stakes couldn't be higher; this is our one chance to wrest control of Cyberstan away from the Cyborgs and the Automatons, and if we fail, the bio-mechanical menace could potentially use stolen plans for our world-ending, DSS-mounted superweapon the Star of Peace to build one of their own and threaten Super Earth.
We were given a reserve of 200 million Helldivers for the offensive towards Cyberstan, with about 50% of it drained until Sunday, when the Cyborgs hacked Super Earth communications and claimed that our casualty rates are far higher in one of the cooler moments in Helldivers 2's Galactic War meta narrative. Just under 28 million lives — a little under 14% of the original force — supposedly remain at the time of writing, though it's impossible to say if we can trust our Super Destroyer readouts, or the Helldivers Companion site... (Update: It was, indeed, a bot trick; our reinforcements are now back to 53%).
Regardless, I'm really hoping the Super Earth Armed Forces can scrape together some reinforcements, because we're in for the biggest, most important fight we've had since the Illuminate's invasion of Super Earth. So lock in and prepare your best anti-bot loadouts, Helldivers, because the Battle for Cyberstan is about to begin. You already know I'm calling in that sweet new tank.
Are you ready to dive on Cyberstan and potentially put an end to the Cyborgs and Automatons' reign of tyranny? What are some of your favorite stratagems to use against the bots? Let me know in the comments.
Follow Windows Central on Google News to keep our latest news, insights, and features at the top of your feeds!
