350,000-strong Helldivers 2 contingent curses now-infamous galactic D&D master Joel as their next big campaign after Malevelon Creek takes a turn for the worst

Helldivers 2 players are perplexed to be losing a planet, despite well over 350,000 soldiers attempting to liberate it.

In the small hours of yesterday, February 29, fans were handed a new ongoing 'Major Order' - liberate the Helldivers 2 Veld planet at any cost. As of last night, a good 12 hours or so after the Major Order was handed down, well over 350,000 players were attempting to conquer Veld, but to their surprise, the gain meter on the planet is now going down.

Considering the Helldivers 2 servers were capped at 800,000 players, last we heard, that means nearly half the entire active player base could be trying to liberate a single planet. Despite that, Veld's liberation meter has dropped to 57% from 70% last night, and Super Earth's best and brightest aren't taking it well.

"Joel doesn't want us to win for now," reads the top comment underneath the Reddit post below. I knew this would happen. Earlier this week, Helldivers 2's game director revealed one dev has the role of 'Game Master,' effectively controlling the Galactic War behind the scenes, and their name is Joel. Players are now saying Joel is very deliberately stacking the deck again them.

HOW? from r/Helldivers

"Ah, a true game master. Makes us suffer for our past loss but I want those 45 medals by any means necessary," the original poster responded to the comment. Joel now has a place of infamy in the hearts and minds of Helldivers 2 players around the globe, although I'd say their role behind the scenes is probably a lot less sinister than that.

The faltering offensive comes very shortly on the heels of Helldivers 2 players losing its most infamous planet: Malevelon Creek. Despite dozens of hours and countless lives lost in the fight to reclaim what was dubbed "space Vietnam," the Automaton forces sadly won, and players were sent packing. The good news is that the fight to retake Malevelon Creek is already up and running. 

We'll have to keep an eye on this Major Order to see whether Helldivers 2's players can recover their lost ground on Veld in the coming days. What we do know is that the first major Helldivers 2 balance patch is coming soon, and its developers are responding to players complaining of "underperforming" guns and Stratagems. 

Be warned that fake Helldivers 2 and Palworld games are popping up on Steam, although thankfully Valve has been pretty swift with getting them taken down.