Helldivers 2’s New Major Order is Hilariously Overkill, But It Won’t Be a Piece of Cake

Helldivers 2 has always been an unabashedly and transparently comedic game. Leaning far more into hysterical, bombastic sci-fi tropes than horrific or even cosmic sci-fi, Helldivers 2 is ‘what you see is what you get’ and, on paper, it’s perfectly successful at embodying players with the same sense of militaristic civic duty that the Helldivers are instilled with by Super Earth’s managed democracy, plummeting down onto invaded planets to liberate them by way of excessive force, even if that means squadmates are frequently caught in an enormously wide line of fire.

‘Excessive’ force is literal in many cases, too. It’s usually easier and more efficient to simply throw a 500KG Eagle Bomb onto rogue research stations, illegal broadcast towers, Stalker lairs, and spore spewers rather than call in a Hellbomb, for instance. Otherwise, players may merely prefer to bring weapons and stratagems that clear the battlefield at a moment’s notice, rather than aiming with precision and taking out fodder enemies one by one. Funny enough, Helldivers 2’s current Major Order is emphasizing fodder enemies a bit more on the Automatons’ side and is specifically asking players to nuke them from orbit.

Helldivers 2’s Devs Have It Out for Automaton Troopers

Helldivers 2’s Major Order, with six days left, reads:

• Liberate the Nanos Sector, and destroy Automaton Conscripts with the Railcannon Stratagem to further secure New Aspiration City.
  • Liberate Duma Tyr
  • Liberate Julheim
  • Liberate Bekvam 3
  • Liberate Dolph
    • Kill 54,305/2,500,000 (2.2%) Troopers using the Orbital Railcannon Strike
      • Reward: 50 Warbond medals

The first half of this MO is completely ordinary, tasking players with liberating several Automaton planets. However, it’s the second half that’s remarkably peculiar, with players having to kill 2,500,000 Troopers with the Orbital Railcannon Strike.

Therefore, killing them in general isn’t difficult, and using the Orbital Railcannon Strike to do so is a wild overcompensation that no player would seek to do in a typical circumstance besides intentionally trying to be humorous. It’s ironic, then, that Helldivers 2’s Arrowhead would make this the offensive stratagem permit players must wield against them, though the revelation of how challenging this objective may be to accomplish is made plain when players understand how the Orbital Railcannon Strike operates.

Helldivers 2’s Railcannon is Designed to Avoid Fodder Enemies

As one of Helldivers 2’s offensive stratagem permits, the Orbital Railcannon Strike is described as:

“A high-velocity railcannon round fired at the largest target in close proximity to the beacon. Targeting is automatic.”

Railcannon Stats

• Call-in time: 0.00 Sec
• Uses: Unlimited
• Cooldown time: 180 Sec

Railcannon Stratagem Traits

As such, this ‘overkill’ execution style isn’t actually easy to perform if anything bigger than a Trooper is anywhere nearby. Unless players have managed to kite Troopers or find a Trooper lingering apart from a mob, it can be devastating to throw Helldivers 2’s Orbital Railcannon Strike stratagem, have it be called in instantaneously, and watch the red homing beacon glide across to a Hulk that players might not have even known was so close by.

This is ironic since players typically do want the Orbital Railcannon Strike to consciously ignore Troopers and cut bot enemy units such as Tanks, Factory Striders, and Mortar Emplacements in half, but this Major Order creates an inverse out of that intent. Players have six days remaining to complete this MO, which may be tough enough to complete with three planets yet to be liberated, and with only 2.2% of Troopers struck by Railcannons so far, it will be fascinating to see what percentage has been reached at the beginning of next week.

Helldivers 2

Systems

9/10

Released

February 8, 2024

ESRB

M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood and Gore, Intense Violence

Developer(s)

Arrowhead Game Studios

Engine

bitsquid