A significant bug has disrupted the core gameplay loop of the cooperative third-person shooter, Helldivers 2, following its weekly update. The “Galactic War,” where players collectively contribute to a shared progress meter to liberate planets, experienced a significant error causing a dramatic surge in the speed of planetary liberation.

In Helldivers 2, players select missions based on directives or personal preference, contributing to the overall Galactic War effort.  To balance progression with varying player counts, a dynamic scaling system adjusts the impact of each successful mission.  With higher player numbers, each victory contributes a smaller percentage to the overall progress than during periods with fewer active players.  Higher difficulty missions also offer a greater contribution.

However, after the recent update, the dynamic scaling system failed to adjust for the thousands of Helldivers playing across all platforms.  As players rushed to complete the newly issued directives, the unchanged scaling drastically increased the percentage contribution of each victory. This led to the swift and unintended liberation of several target planets within a short time frame.

Developer Arrowhead Game Studios addressed the issue on social media, stating, "While we know this might seem fun, we also understand that it breaks the Galactic War meta.  Simply put, it hurts the game experience and will negatively affect the meta going forward."

Unfortunately, the unintended progress is irreversible.  The developers confirmed that the completed progress cannot be rolled back, and the in-game character "Joel," who manages the war effort, is unable to reverse the situation.  The development team stated, "This is our mistake, and we will own it. We will not revert any gains made from this bug, so the current critical directive is guaranteed success."

Prior to the bug, players were faced with a dilemma: defend a laboratory developing poison gas mines or rescue a group of vulnerable young people, echoing a similar early-game choice between anti-tank mines and saving children.  Previously, the community chose to save the children, resulting in a real-world donation by Arrowhead to a children's charity. Now, with the unintended acceleration of progress, this latest dilemma has been resolved prematurely, almost miraculously.

Following the discovery of the bug, all progress within the Galactic War has been temporarily paused, and successful missions no longer contribute to the war effort.  Arrowhead has confirmed they are working on a fix, though the complexity of the issue means a specific timeframe remains uncertain, with the next weekly update being the most likely target.  In the meantime, players can continue to enjoy the core combat gameplay of Helldivers 2.