What you need to know
- Helldivers 2's Galactic War is a large metagame in which players fight Terminid bugs and Automaton robots for control of various planets and sectors in the galaxy.
- Today, a new Major Order has been issued that directs the community to the planet of Veld, where a surprise infestation of Terminid bugs has surfaced and threatens to spread across the planet.
- If players can liberate Veld by Monday morning, everyone will earn 45 Warbond Medals for use with Helldivers 2's battle passes.
- Veld is remarkably similar to Malevelon Creek, a fan-favorite Automaton planet known for its difficulty. Like Malevelon Creek, it has dark and hazy blue lighting and thick jungle vegetation that impedes movement.
- Update: The Helldivers 2 community has successfully liberated Veld in a little over 24 hours, but the fighting's not done yet. Now the bugs have spread to its neighbor worlds Heeth and Angel's Venture, and players need to make sure both planets are under Super Earth control when the latest Major Order expires on next Thursday morning.
Update 3/1/2024 at 12:50 p.m. PT / 3:50 p.m. ET: The Helldivers 2 community rose to the challenge of liberating Veld tremendously, getting the job done in just over 24 hours. Unfortunately, though, it looks like the bugs were able to spread to its neighbor worlds Heeth and Angle's Venture. Now, players have a new Major Order to make sure both of these worlds are under Super Earth control when the Major Order expires next Thursday morning.
Notably, this campaign will be a little different than previous ones. Not only will we have to free these planets, but we'll also have to hold them, too, which means the community has to stay on top of any outbreaks that occur throughout the next week. Luckily, Joel the Game Master, with his god-like power, has given everyone a temporary bonus Eagle Napalm Strike stratagem to use in the field.
Like the Major Order to liberate Veld, this one will reward everyone with 45 Warbond Medals if it's completed successfully. Notably, Heeth isn't under attack yet, but Angel's Venture is. The former appears to be a snow planet, while the latter is described as having "a perennially chilly climate" that has "allowed short, colorful shrubs to flourish" across its surface.
The Helldivers 2 community may have failed to stop the Automaton advance in the western front of the Galactic War, but forget about that — new orders just came in from Super Earth. A surprise infestation of Terminid bugs has surfaced on planet Veld in the Orion Sector, and it's up to the Helldivers to eradicate it before it can spread.
"Veld was determined clear of Terminid presence months ago, but it appears a subterranean hive eluded detection, and has been gestating un-Democratic vermin for weeks," reads an in-game briefing. "Now the spawn have erupted, creating a massive outbreak that threatens to engulf the entire planet if we do not act quickly. Contain the outbreak now, before the bugs are able to spread further."
The campaign to liberate Veld will be active for the next four days or so, with the operation slated to end on Monday morning. That means players will have the entirety of the weekend to head to Veld and help out with pest control duty by playing through missions and completing planetary operations.
I recently wrote about why poor rewards were why we lost to the Automatons with the last Major Order, but I'm pleased to report that the spoils of war on offer this time around are a lot better. If the community can successfully take care of Veld's bug problem, everyone will get a bounty of 45 Warbond Medals to unlock items from both the free and paid Helldivers 2 battle passes with. That's quite a big chunk, and one that's sure to motivate players to do their part for the war effort.
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The fight won't be an easy one, though. I blitzed through a quick Trivial mission as I was writing this to see what Veld is like, and its terrain is similar to Malevelon Creek — a dark jungle world on the far edge of Automaton-controlled space that's notorious (and loved) for its difficulty. Malevelon Creek actually fell on Tuesday evening, though a counter-offensive to take it back has already begun. Its thick, movement-inhibiting vegetation and low visibility make fighting the bots there very tough, and I suspect the same will be true with Veld and its Terminids.
Players have also figured out that the bugs gain ground on Veld abnormally quickly, though the liberation percentage bar is still steadily rising in Super Earth's favor thanks to nearly 250,000 Helldivers already fighting on the front lines. At this pace, we might free Veld in less than 24 hours.
Notably, Veld is only three sectors away from Super Earth, and it's the closest any of the Galactic War's fronts have gotten to the Sol System. If we fail to clear the planet in four days' time, we could see the bugs spread to other nearby Orion worlds like Angel's Venture or Heeth, or even to perimeter planets in the Celeste Sector such as Slif and Moradesh. This would put them even closer to our beloved home world, though the hilariously ironic thing about this whole situation is that in Helldivers 2's lore (yes, there is lore), humanity is implied to be "farming" the Terminids for the oil their bodies produce when they decompose. A problem of our own making, if you will.
The new Major Order comes just a day after we learned in a PC Gamer interview that much of the Galactic War is controlled by a single Arrowhead Game Studios developer called Joel, who serves as Helldivers 2's dutiful "Game Master." Joel picks out Major Orders as well as personal ones for players to fight for, and also determines where the bugs and bots choose to attack as the conflict unfolds.
Overall, things are looking up for Helldivers 2 following its explosive launch earlier this month. Its developers celebrated victory over server capacity issues earlier this week, and have shifted "to focus on improvements" and additions like the giant armored mechs we saw in the "Report for Duty" trailer as well as in leaked gameplay on Reddit. And while we don't have an official roadmap yet, it's been confirmed that one is coming soon.
Helldivers 2 is available now for $39.99 on both PS5 and PC, and so far, it's one of the best PC games of the year. Notably, the game also supports cross-platform play between PS5 and PC.
