Helldivers 2 devs say no, farmers aren't handing planets to the Automatons on a silver platter—they just aren't helping

GamesActionHelldivers 2Helldivers 2 devs say no, farmers aren’t handing planets to the Automatons on a silver platter—they just aren’t helpingWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

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(Image credit: Arrowhead Games / PlayStation)

An image of an automaton from Helldivers 2 comically stealing a baby away from its mother in a little jog.

One theory has been particularly thorny—the insistence that farmers are ruining everything. For the uninitiated, a popular way to grind medals has emerged during the Helldivers' current war against the automatons. Step one: Find an “Eradicate Automaton Forces” mission. Step two: Blitz your way through it. Step three: Grab your medals and bounce.We don’t recommend that last part ourselves, but it hasn’t stopped people from taking the warpath of least resistance.

The anti-farmer campaign started to really spin its wheels when a player on the official Helldivers 2 discord server asked if operation-abandoning was helping the automatons win. “Yes,” wrote Arrowhead developer Evil-Bosse. “Quitting after only half the [operation] counts as a loss for super earth.”

(Image credit: Evil-Bosse on the Helldivers 2 Discord.)

An image that reads: “Yes, quitting after only half the op counts as a loss for super earth."

In a thread that hit thesubreddittouting this as proof “straight from the dev’s mouth”, Misty from Arrowhead’s community & support team replied in a comment thatwasn’t the case. “I can confirm that abandoning an operation does not progress the enemy’s percentage, so people who leave operations do not negatively affect a planet. Unfortunately Evil-Bosse got it wrong, but we all make mistakes!” Bossealso commented, apologising for “accidentally spreading misinformation.”

Misty elaborated on the Helldivers 2 Discord, writing: “I just got confirmation that abandoning an operation does not progress the enemy’s percentage, so people who leave operations do not negatively affect a planet. But they do not positively affect it either.”

(Image credit: Misty on the Helldivers 2 Discord.)

A Discord message that reads: “I just got confirmation that abandoning an operation does not progress the enemy’s percentage, so people who leave operations do not negatively affect a planet. But they do not positively affect it either."

So what causes the automaton’s progress to rise while Super Earth’s pretty blue bar dwindles? Turns out that’s likely just a timer. In a separate reply, Misty continues: “The enemy fights back, it goes down naturally, you have to slow their advance.”

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So there you have it. Medal farmers aren’t, in fact, actively harming the war effort—they’re just not really helping. While I’ve been in the bot trenches hugging my Recoilless Rifle like it’s a stuffed animal, I can’t say I ever really blamed farmers for any of it. Maybe it’s just because I’ve played one too many MMOs, but trying to stop people from optimising a grind is just impossible—it’s better to take stock of your rewards system and work around the flow of that particular river.

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