After Helldivers 2 fixed the bug that helped players squish 2 billion Terminids in 24 hours, a new Major Order pits them against 2 billion bots instead

A new Helldivers 2 Major Order has dropped, tasking players with killing 2 billion Automatons - and it should be a darn sight harder than the last time the kill count climbed that high.

Earlier today, Helldivers 2 dropped its latest Major Order, asking players to "decommission" 2 billion Automatons. If players are successful, they'll repurpose those robo-parts, melting them down into a new Strategem. Alongside a 45-medal reward, players will get access to MD-17 Anti-Tank Mines, which seem extremely useful for taking down some of the Automatons' heavier ordinance.

If this MO sounds familiar, it's because it's not that long since players were tasked with killing 2 billion Terminids. That goal was smashed extremely quickly, however - players were given six days to squish those bugs, but they hit the mark in just 12 hours, with 100 million confirmed kills in the first hour alone. As it turns out, however, that was the result of an in-game bug that had the potential to quadruple the amount of kills the game counted.

That bug has since been fixed (not squished), and it seems like progress on this latest order is a lot slower than last time. Perhaps that's thanks to the multiplicative effect of Bots being considered generally harder to kill than Bugs, but with only a million confirmed kills in the first hour of the new Order, it does seem as though players are chewing their way through their foes a little slower than last time.

Another factor at play could be a drop in player enthusiasm. Over the past two weeks, Helldivers 2 has been on a rollercoaster of community satisfaction, with a massive review-bomb sparked by Sony's new PSN mandate. Sony would eventually back down, but it remains a dark spot in the game's history that might have a wider impact than what's been felt so far.

Get the edge on those bots with our Helldivers 2 best weapons tier list.