Helldivers 2 announces the latest development in the galactic war. The planet under attack by the automatons is Tien Kwan, a name that should sound familiar to any freedom-loving patriot who saw Arrowhead's Mechatease a few days ago: yes, this is where they make their mechas.

Now, the question of why an automaton would want an exosuit would be the very communal reaction of a person who is not currently diving at the speed of knots into the Milky Way. If this robot gets even more robotic parts, it must surely be comforted.

In a situation like this, every player is bound to mention one name: Joel. The "Helldiver 2" game master keeps an eye on the game's meta-structure for moments like this. No matter how many soldiers Super Earth sends in, the automaton will not go down easily.

Even though the game has only been out for a few weeks, the liberation of Tien Kwan follows one of the game's first great emergent moments. In the liberation of Veld, players heartbroken by the collective failure of the previous major order swept onto the planet as soon as it was given. For the first few hours, it looked as if it would be a cakewalk. Then someone tinkered with the dials and things got very complicated and messy.

"Hell Diver 2" came out of the gate with a full roar and showed no signs of slowing down. The game just received its first major balance patch, showing that Arrowhead is unafraid to go in where the nerf hammer is needed (and by golly, can the chaingun players moan about it). And in other metagame news, there is an even more interesting prospect: some players believe that Arrowhead is "leaking" unannounced elements to random games.