What you need to know
- Prior to Helldivers 2’s launch early last month, developer Arrowhead Game Studios revealed that armored mechs were coming to the game soon after launch. Recently, gameplay footage of those mechs has begun to leak online.
- Mechs aren’t the only vehicles players are somehow managing to get their hands on, however. Videos of a Halo Warthog-style recon buggy and an armored personnel carrier (APC) have been posted on social media as well.
- The recon buggy has room for a driver, up to three passengers, and a gunner, and is faster but less armored. The APC trades speed for protection and firepower, as it’s slower but has an extra machine gun and thicker armor.
- The vehicles are incomplete, as they have some missing textures and animations. Right now, it’s unclear if these vehicles were scrapped or if they’re work-in-progress and are coming to Helldivers 2 in future updates.
Though there aren’t officially any armored mechs in Helldivers 2 right now, developer Arrowhead Game Studios confirmed that they’re “coming soon after launch” in a pre-release trailer — and last week, nearly a month after the co-op PvE shooter came out on February 8, gameplay footage of the tanky pillboxes on legs (like this one) began to leak on various different social media sites. Though they appear to have limited ammunition and don’t seem very maneuverable, they also look like they can dish out as much punishment as they can take, which is to say: a lot. When they officially become available, they’ll most likely be some of most powerful unlocks in the game.
It’s unclear if players are hacking into Helldivers 2 to get these or if there are a few Arrowhead devs (or our lord and savior Joel) bestowing them upon random matchmaking lobbies, but mechs aren’t the only unreleased stratagems Helldivers are getting their hands on as they battle bugs and bots across the galaxy. Videos of a recon vehicle similar to Halo’s iconic Warthog as well as an armored personnel carrier (APC) have leaked online, too, some of which you can watch via the embeds below.
More unreleased stratagems have been appearing in Helldivers 2 matches, including this recon vehicle. #Helldivers2 pic.twitter.com/ZqfZYZbQbvMarch 1, 2024
An unreleased armored personnel carrier stratagem is appearing in Helldivers 2 matches. There are now three unreleased player-controlled stratagems (Mech, Recon vehicle, APC). #Helldivers2 pic.twitter.com/MlwKhi7z4kMarch 2, 2024
Proof from my own gameplay. pic.twitter.com/Du694rgMaBMarch 3, 2024
Bruh it’s not just mechs coming in #helldivers2 but apc’s too!!! 🤯🤯🤯 pic.twitter.com/PRNkRcB6LJMarch 2, 2024
Unsurprisingly, the recon buggy is the fastest of the two vehicles, and appears to have space for one driver, up to three passengers, and a gunner who can take advantage of the rear-mounted machine gun. The APC is slower and requires manual gear changing to drive, but has better armor and what looks like a pair of mounted Stalwart light machine guns that its occupants can use. One player claims the APC machine guns each have 10 magazines, and if that’s true, the scout vehicle’s weapon likely does too.
Notably, calling these vehicles down works differently than regular equipment drops do — at least in this unreleased state. Instead of dropping in from orbit like support weapons, backpack items, and ammo supplies do, they’re flown in by a dropship that’ll likely provide some covering fire like the ones you call in for extraction do.
Neither the scout buggy or the APC have been announced by Arrowhead officially, so it’s entirely possible that they were omitted from Helldivers 2 and that these are just incomplete versions of the vehicles left in the game files. What I think is more likely, though, is that these are actually work-in-progress, and that we’ll eventually see them come after the exosuit mechs do.
Assuming the vehicles are added to the game at some point, it’ll be interesting to see where they fit into the game’s sandbox. I can totally see the recon one being one of the best stratagems to use in Blitz levels that are all about getting in and out as fast as possible, and the APC seems like it’ll be great in missions that require someone to carry a hard drive objective from one location to another. It may also serve as an effective teamwork-oriented alternative to the slower, but more heavily armed mechs that are piloted by individual players.
As someone who’s always enjoyed vehicle gameplay in shooters and feels that it’s often criminally underrated, I’m hoping that these will indeed find their way into Helldivers 2 officially. Arrowhead is working on a roadmap and has shifted gears “to focus on improvements” and additions now that the game’s server issues have been taken care of, so I expect we’ll know soon enough.
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.
