Highly anticipated: Earlier this week, the team at Arrowhead Game Studios announced the imminent arrival of mechs in Super Earth’s ongoing war to liberate the galaxy. The announcement sent Helldivers around the world into a frenzy. When Super Earth’s forces were called to liberate the mech factories on Tien Kwan, the response was far greater, faster, and more explosive than anyone could have predicted.
Players of Arrowhead’s hit game have been on the edge of their seats since the appearance of mechs and other vehicles earlier this month. Their anticipation hit fever pitch when the official @helldivers2 X account announced the rollout of the new EXO-45 Patriot Exosuit.
Two days later, players were called to liberate the mech factories producing the suits after coming under sudden attack. The prize for liberating the planet and factories? A new stratagem giving players access to the much anticipated heavy weapons.
The game’s player base answered the call with a level of force that wasn’t anticipated by the game’s development team, CEO Johan Pilestedt, or even by Joel, the mysterious games master of the Helldivers 2 universe. Thousands upon thousands of players descended upon Tien Kwan to fight for their chance to pilot one of the new exosuits as soon as the challenge was announced. Needless to say, there was a LOT of liberty spread in the fight for control of the new weapons. Maybe too much.
You did it, Helldivers. Thanks to your determination, Tien Kwan stands strong and free. pic.twitter.com/GC1rPmI30C
– HELLDIVERS™ 2 (@helldivers2) March 8, 2024
According to Pilestedt, the in-game event’s response was far beyond they expected, resulting in the planet and factory’s liberation much faster than originally planned. While this sounds like a win for everyone involved, the victory wasn’t without casualties.
In this case, those casualties were once again players who couldn’t get into the game due to load and capacity issues in response to the new stratagem’s availability.
Hey everyone!
With the successful push from the community to take Tien Kwan and the subsequent enabling of the mechs our servers have a hard time coping, the team is aware and doing what they can to mitigate. This intermittent issue is caused by too many trying to acquire the…
– Pilestedt (@Pilestedt) March 8, 2024
According to Downdetector, reports of server unavailability appear to have tailed off on Friday evening and continued decreasing into early Saturday morning.
As the weekend arrives there’s no telling if issues may persist, resurface, or if they’ve been resolved for good. The new server issues came just a few weeks after the game’s initial availability issues at launch.
Players who can get into the game have temporary access to a free permit allowing them to call down one mech per mission. Once the permit expires, the only way to access the EXO-45 will be by unlocking the level 25 stratagem for the low, low price of 20,000 requisition (one of the game’s currencies). Take advantage of that mech permit while you can, get out there and spread some democracy!
