Helldivers 2 player pleads for help after a bot tank eats a 500kg bomb like it's nothing – accidentally summoning the creative director, who says: "Agree, that should be bye-bye"

Helldivers 2 Automaton Tank heat sink weak point
(Image credit: Sony)

A Helldivers 2 player recently discovered the agonizing truth that some bot tanks in the co-op third person shooter are bulletproof. Or, more accurately, 500kg bomb-proof.

In a recent Reddit post, the user SLAYA_27 begged devs for relief after their attempt to decimate an enemy tank resulted in an earth-shaking explosion and their untimely, bloody elimination. 

"Please fix this enemy tank," they wrote on Reddit. "How tf can it survive a 500kg in its turret!!" 

In the corresponding gameplay video, SLAYA_27 deploys the massive Eagle 500kg Bomb stratagem, a hefty explosive best suited to hurting close-range enemies. Some Helldivers 2 fans find that fact disappointing — "500kg is incredibly strong, vaporizes anything within 1m of the blast zone," says one popular Reddit comment. "Sadly, even though the explosion itself is huge, outside of that 1m it's a wet fart." 

Tragically, wet farts are not compatible with Helldivers 2's new tanks, which are wildly strong. After SLAYA_27 drops their 500kg Bomb, it bursts in a beam of inescapable orange light and… nothing happens. The tank is unscathed, and SLAYA_27's character becomes a droopy ragdoll in the explosion. But they aren't alone in the experience. In another Reddit thread, a fan complains that tanks are "bugged into being OP." 

"It blew me and my friend into smithereens with a burst barrage," they said. "It could AT LEAST have had the decency to blow itself up, but I guess that privilege is only for our mech." 

At least Helldivers 2 devs seem to recognize that their tanks' excessive tankiness is a problem. After a commenter on SLAYA_27's post mused on how "a piece of thermite can burn through [a tank], but half a ton of liberty does nothing," creative director Johan Pilestedt replied "Agree, that should be bye-bye." For players' safety, hopefully tanks' strange imperviousness does go bye-bye soon. 

Until then, learn how to destroy tanks in Helldivers 2.

Ashley Bardhan
Contributor

Ashley Bardhan is a critic from New York who covers gaming, culture, and other things people like. She previously wrote Inverse’s award-winning Inverse Daily newsletter. Then, as a Kotaku staff writer and Destructoid columnist, she covered horror and women in video games. Her arts writing has appeared in a myriad of other publications, including Pitchfork, Gawker, and Vulture.