Helldivers 2's new Major Order is offering players a new mech suit strategem - if they can liberate an Automaton factory that's making its own new weapons.
The new Major Order, announced earlier today, reveals that "the Automatons are building a giant 'petafactory' on Valyria 5." That factory is similar to the Exosuit factory that players fought to liberate on Tien Kwan, when they unlocked the game's first Helldivers 2 mechs.
The Order tasks players with liberating the factory, suggesting that if they do so "this facility could be converted to produce the Dual-Autocannon equipped EXO-49 Emancipator Exosuit." Essentially, if the community can free Valyria 5 from the clutches of the Automatons, they'll gain a new mech strategem.
MAJOR ORDER: Surveillance has uncovered an Automaton "Petafactory"; its only purpose to mass-produce heartless weapons of war.Liberate it and we can convert it to produce en masse the dual-Autocannon EXO-49 EMANCIPATOR EXOSUIT. pic.twitter.com/r2yZeCvY2DMay 23, 2024
The Emancipator Exosuit leaked a couple of months ago, suggesting that developer Arrowhead has had this latest twist in the Galactic War ready to go for a little while now. Equipped with double rockets, the Emancipator looks like the kind of tool that will rip through enemy units. It also looks like something of a step up from the previous mech, which was a little clunky, and had some questionable aim if you were a little too trigger-happy.
Whether players actually get to test it out, however, remains to be seen. Completing Major Orders is starting to get more and more difficult, perhaps as a result of a naturally-shrinking player base that's appears to also be suffering from the fact that Automatons are still not that much fun to fight.
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I'm GamesRadar's news editor, working with the team to deliver breaking news from across the industry. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.