Helldivers 2 follows the setting of its predecessor, Helldivers, by thrusting players into an intergalactic war for planets. Only this time, the game is purely multiplayer, third-person, and a boatload more fun.
Arrowhead has fixed the server issues plaguing the game, and players can now jump in freely to experience the wacky mayhem it offers. The co-op shooter has amassed an enormous level of popularity, and we’re officially in the ‘fan theories and lore deduction’ stage, with a very compelling hypothesis about one of the enemy types in the game.
Helldivers 2’s Automatons Are Time Travelers
A recent YouTube video from Greg from Cult Meetings suggests that there might be a lot more to the Automatons than what meets the eye. Helldivers 2 may just present the Automatons as robotic foes who are frustratingly difficult to take down, but Greg’s theory adds a plethora of compelling layers to them.
The theory proposes that the Automatons’ robotic nature is the result of a radical transformation in the future to overcome resource limitations. The transformation is not just about efficiency, but also about seeking control. Becoming entirely cybernetic could eliminate weaknesses of the human-machine hybrid form.
Helldivers 2 depicts a future with scarce resources, leading the Automatons to use time travel to secure what they need. The power struggle resulting from that is the intergalactic war we see in the game between the Helldivers and the Automatons for control of outer rim worlds, creating an alternate timeline.
Judging The Theory’s Viability
While the theory does border on Terminator territory, it does make a lot of sense. Resource shortages in the future is an intriguing real-world concept that Arrowhead could have mirrored in Helldivers 2‘s lore as well.
However, the theory does falter a bit on the origin of the Automatons. The YouTuber says that it’s unclear where the robotic enemies come from, but actually, they’re an advanced version of the human separatist Cyborgs seen in Helldivers 1, proven by the identical flags in both games.
Helldivers 2 is set 100 years after the first game, which means the Cyborgs have simply discarded their last organic components and are now completely cybernetic. Another interesting comment states that the Automatons may worship a deity, on account of “sacrificial stone slabs with dead colonists shredded on them”, which they claim to have seen on medium-sized outposts.
Theorizing lore is one of the best things about games, as FromSoftware fans will vehemently tell you. Helldivers 2 doesn’t have a lot of established lore, with most of it carrying over from the first game. This indicates that Arrowhead may have focussed more on the multiplayer aspect, rather than imbuing it with a narrative.
However, they’ve evidently nailed what they were going for, and now fans want to know more about the intergalactic war that rages on in the co-op shooter. Arrowhead has hinted that the Ilumanids from the first game will return in Helldivers 2, which signals that the lore may expand over time. The fan theories will be insane, and we are all for it.
