It’s all but certain by now thatHelldivers 2might eventually play host to most, if not all of the originalHelldivers‘ content. The Illuminate faction, really, is the biggest cog that’s missing from the machine, but the stage for their return is already set according to the game’s API.
Notably, while theAutomatons are now fielding immensely powerful mobile bot factoriesand theTerminid bugs have taken to the skies, we’ve heard virtually nothing about the Illuminates so far. If you disregard all themysterious Helldiver deathsandblue laser attacks, that is. Speculation is, of course, all we’ve got so far, but one of the websites that keeps track of Super Earth’s galactic war effort via theHelldivers 2API has logged over two dozen dead Illuminates on – wait for it – Super Earth itself. And Cyberstan, too, for that matter, which is very curious indeed.
Helldivers 2 is already counting Illuminate deaths
According toHD2Galaxy, a third-partyHelldivers 2Supply Linewebsite, Super Earth has played host to 16 dead Illuminates so far. Similarly, Cyberstan has got 12 dead Illuminates logged as of early April. There’s no real explanation for this information to speak of, but the mere fact that Illuminate kills are tracked by the game’s API tells us two things:
Note, too, that Helldiver forces have not yet been deployed on either Super Earth or Cyberstan, which means players haven’t yet seen them in action. Virtually anything could be going on there, and Arrowhead may be testing things out in the backend, before the fighting begins proper.
SinceHelldivers 2places heavy emphasis on reactive, live-action narrative development whereplayers make their choices as they go, one of the explanations for these strange dead Illuminates is that the faction may have sent out offerings of peace to both Cyberstand and Super Earth. Offerings that wererefusedwith extreme prejudice. That, however, isjust a theoryfor the time being, and we’ll need to see how the narrative surrounding the Illuminate develops in the coming months.
We shouldn’t expect Arrowhead to plainly announcethe release of a whole new faction inHelldivers 2, note. So far, the developer has been enjoying its ability to stealthily introduce large batches of content to the game in a way that players are first exposed to new enemy units as they deploy onto new operations. It’s a very exciting take on the classic live-service formula, so there’s much that could be done with the Illuminates’ seemingly inevitable arrival to the galactic war front.
