‘Frustrating’: Helldivers 2 players still hate taking on one enemy after all this time

Those factory-born freaks are tearing us apart.

A Helldivers uses the pistol from Polar Patriots to battle a robot in Helldivers 2.
Image via Arrowhead Studios

With Major Orders malfunctioning and bugs still plaguing Helldivers 2, you’d hope the community could at least hold themselves together. But, one issue still keeps people from enjoying all factions in the game—the Automatons, who prove to be way too annoying and difficult. And one Diver spelled it out perfectly.

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A Helldiver fires their Liberator Carbine at bugs in Helldivers 2.
They don’t even show bots in their new Warbond trailer. Image via Arrowhead Studios

On June 8, in a Reddit post titled “Reasons why a majority of players won’t fight Automaton, and you can’t persuade them otherwise,” a Helldivers 2 fan detailed all the reasons that the faction’s unfun to fight against. Despite fighting the bots themselves, the author brought 10 points to the table as to why someone might not want to battle on the Western front. “You must understand that Bug and Bot have entirely different playstyles,” they began, listing how the bots forced players to think less about horde control and more about surviving.

They then went on to list more grievances, from the ability of even the weakest Automaton to “instantly put you to rest” with a headshot to noting that “defense or extraction missions are super hard in high difficulty,” to the point where most players can’t complete them with random allies. They even brought in the game’s advertising, as “everything focuses on the bugs,” and the bots are in the “red zone,” which is intuitively a place for higher-skilled—and better-equipped—players.

Other players had plenty of gripes with Automatons, too. One wrote a dissertation on Heavy Devastators, noting their accuracy even under suppressing fire and “extremely frequently spawning.” Many talked about their experience with bots “clipping through the rock” and flanking unfortunate Divers. But don’t worry, “bugdivers just existing” was another gripe by a commenter, stating that the planet decayed faster since a significant portion of the player base was not fighting the bots. The flames of the Bugdiver-hating war can even exist on a post begging people to leave those players alone, and that’s a big problem for a game as community-driven as Helldivers 2.

Hopefully, the Arrowhead Studios team and their upcoming gigantic patch will help soothe the community’s rage. Until then, Godspeed, Super Citizens.

Author
Image of Jason Toro-McCue
Jason Toro-McCue
Contributing writer and member of the RPG beat. Professional writer of five years for sites and apps, including Nerds + Scoundrels and BigBrain. D&D and TTRPG fanatic, perpetual Fighter main in every game he plays.