It’s an exciting time to be a Helldiver, with Arrowhead recently adding urban maps, a recon vehicle, and a third enemy faction to the game. At first, it looked like the story of the Illuminate returning to the galaxy would be one and done, told over the course of a weekend. The Illuminate arrived immediately after an announcement at The Game Awards and hit the planet of Calypso, and Helldivers narrowly defended Calypso with only moments to spare. Now the dastardly space squids have their sights firmly set on another target: the black hole where Meridia used to be.
This requires a little bit of explanation. The game’s first two enemy factions are the Terminids and the Automatons. The Terminids in particular have proven to be a popular foe; even when Major Orders from Super Earth direct players to go fight robots, a chunk of players remain in Terminid space to live out their Starship Troopers fantasies. A little while ago, the Terminid threat responded to this attention with a series of fast, potent evolutions. And Super Earth intel identified that one world in particular, Meridia, was a Supercolony.
Arrowhead ran a fun, limited-time event where players had to pump Meridia full of Dark Fluid, holding off the forces of the Supercolony in order to pull off this daring gambit. It succeeded, turning Meridia into a black hole. There’s the old trope of Chekhov’s Gun: If you show a gun in the first act, it better fire before the end of the play. It seems that Helldivers are now encountering Arrowhead’s Black Hole — if you open a weird hole in space, it’s going to attract the attention of some sinister squids.
Now the Illuminate, unlike their fellow enemy factions, haven’t claimed a permanent portion of space. Instead, they’re engaging in hit-and-run attack on Super Earth worlds, starting with Calypso and moving eastward. At first, there wasn’t much notable about that pattern… and then fans noticed some weird stuff about Meridia. The black hole is now more purple, brighter, and seems to be sucking in debris at an alarming rate.
So far, Helldivers have defended Terminid territory from the Illuminate — which is a weird position to be in after spending months squashing bugs — and have spanked the squids back. As of the end of Operation Squid Game, which ended at around 4:30 p.m. ET on Friday, the Illuminate have vanished off the map again. But I don’t think this unfolding story is over quite yet. It seems apparent there are some holes in the Illuminate’s roster, and I expect them to be filled with some new terrifying bio-organic horrors soon. At least players can now purchase the vehicle as a Stratagem and hit the road at any time. You gotta count your blessings while embroiled in a three-front intergalactic war for democracy.
