GamesThird Person ShooterHelldivers 2Unreleased Helldivers 2 vehicles are leaking all over the place, but I’m not ruling out that Game Master Joel has something to do with itWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
GamesThird Person ShooterHelldivers 2Unreleased Helldivers 2 vehicles are leaking all over the place, but I’m not ruling out that Game Master Joel has something to do with itWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Arrowhead Game Studios)

The Super Earth mothership is springing leaks. Developer Arrowhead Game Studios has talked openly about how unprepared it was for Helldivers 2’s massive popularity at launch, so it’s fair to assume it also didn’t anticipate how motivated fans would be to find out what’s coming next.
In the past week, videos of players accessing unreleased vehicles have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times on TikTok and YouTube. Far and wide, players are joining quickplay lobbies and discovering teammatespiloting walking mechsequipped with machine guns and missile launchers. Officially, mechs areset to roll out “soon.“More surprising has been the discovery of unannounced four-seated transport vehicles. A few videos of a"Rover” buggy with a back-mounted turret(like a Halo warthog) have appeared, as well as evidence of alarger APC vanwith multiple mounted guns. Over the weekend, players also gained access to mysterious new weapons, including the"Commando” rocket launcherand a"Quasar" laser cannon.
The main way that players are accessing unreleased content seems to be through cheat software. Elsewhere, Helldivers 2 dataminers have allegedly uncovered references toover a dozen weapons and stratagemsnot currently in the game.
But because this is Helldivers 2 we’re talking about, a game with a dedicated dungeon master steering its galactic war in big and small ways, I don’t think cheats tell the whole story. Are these all just garden variety leaks, or is this another narrative Arrowhead is manipulating?
Joel could be behind (some of) this
That could explain an uptick in mech drops. If Arrowhead were slowly doling out mechs to random sessions, it’d accomplish two things: gathering early impressions and data about the mechs themselves, and generating a 500 kg bomb’s worth of buzz.
Here’s the thing: Some people aredefinitelyusing cheats to spawn in stuff andaren’t trying to hide it. But I think Arrowhead is playing into the mystique, and even doing a little leaking of its own in plain sight.
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(Image credit: Arrowhead Game Studios)

Last night I was playing Stratagem Hero on my ship and noticed the minigame contains a code for a stratagem that doesn’t currently exist: the Orbital Illumination Flare. The flare code has actually been in the game for weeks, with the few players who’ve shared it online brushing it off as the remnant of a cut stratagem. Certainly possible, but what if it’s actually a teaser for a future mission type where it’s so dark that you need flares just to see where you’re going?
He’s also been vocal about keeping aspects of its roadmap a secret so that Helldivers 2 can “surprise and delight” players.
Uncertainty is the point
The first month of Helldivers 2 is taking me back to the first year of Fortnite, back when Epic would sneak map alterations, new items, and narrative events into the game without notice. Epic trusted, correctly, that players would document even the smallest clues and then share them widely. For a few weeks there, the status of aFortnite cube named Kevinwas front page news. Epic has seemingly lost its appetite for “surprise and delight” in Fortnite, and these days it focuses on brand crossovers above all else. Helldivers 2 could be different.
If all goes according to plan, I expect we’ll never know for sure how much Arrowhead is holding its thumb on the scale, because that’s the point. Cheat or no cheat, intentional leak or not, Helldivers 2 has accomplished something rare in videogames: Genuine intrigue.
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