Helldivers 2’s great war to spread democracy across the galaxy is being undermined by an unlikely source: farmers.
Arrowhead’s phenomenally popular co-op focused third-person shooter features a galaxy-wide war that pits the forces of Super Earth against Terminids (alien bugs) on one side and Automatons (alien robots) on the other (check out our Terminids and Automatons enemy list for more). The idea is to “liberate” planets from alien infestation by completing operations, which are made up of a variety of missions. If you start an operation then fail to complete all the missions within it, the operation counts as a loss for Super Earth.
You can see the effect your work has on the status of each planet’s liberation as you complete operations. And, taking a higher level view, you can see how the community is doing generally against each faction sector-wide. But it isn’t just bugs and robots who are fighting against Super Earth, it’s traitorous players.
Helldivers 2 is currently in the throes of a farming problem. No, cows aren’t shooting the place up. Rather, players who ‘farm’ resources such as medals (used to work through the battle pass), requisition (used to unlock stratagems), and XP (used to level up) from easy-going missions, like the fast-paced Automaton eradication missions that charge players with simply killing a certain number of enemies (mortal sentries held here), are then resetting the operation to rinse and repeat.
Completing eradicate enemies missions over and over again is seen as a more efficient way to farm resources than completing the operation via another mission type that takes much longer, so even though Helldivers 2 provides bonuses for completing operations, these rewards are not good enough to convince farmers to do the right thing.
The problem, of course, is that by failing to finish all missions in an operation, farmers are damaging the overall war effort. As Arrowhead has confirmed, quitting after only half the operation counts as a loss for Super Earth. So while democracy-loving Helldivers 2 are off sacrificing themselves for the greater good across the galaxy, farmers have already reset scores of operations by bursting through eradicate missions in just a few missions. “So it sounds like there’s three factions; Terminids, Automatons, and Farmers,” joked one redditor.
“People farming on defense missions are the reason why Super Earth will be taken eventually,” complained redditor SilentBoss29. “Yesterday I joined five different lobbies subsequentially because I was trying to defend an Automaton zone planet and the first four lobbies were just farming the ‘Destroy Automatons’ missions over and over, pretty much surrendering whole operations just to farm these missions and get XP and money, I would assume.
“I do not want to be dictating how you should play the game, but this is definitely not how devs design the game to play. I really believe that if at any point the community agrees with farming missions, and Super Earth gets taken because of it, the devs should make the game unaccesible so that humanity can ‘go find another Super Earth’ for a few days and reset our progress. I really cannot believe the amount of sweat that some players want to experience in a PvE game. It is a shame that they do not really appreciate the fresh air that this game brings in the shooter genre.”
There’s a little more nuance to this farming problem, though. Some players are put off certain types of missions due to their extreme difficulty, and would rather focus on more easy-going missions, such as the eradicate type, than soldier through nightmarish missions such as evacuations. Making a go of completing all three missions in an operation can take a lot of time and effort, especially on higher difficulty and with random teammates.
And then there’s the Helldivers 2 grind, which is long and painful. Progression can feel like it takes an age, and if you only have a certain amount of time to play, it perhaps makes sense to play as efficiently as possible if you’re struggling to unlock a certain stratagem or item in the battle pass.
And it is probably the case that a lot of players simply aren’t aware of the way operations work and how they contribute to the war effort. Unless you’re in the weeds with Helldivers 2 and keep up with the latest developments, you might not know that incomplete operations count as a loss for Super Earth. Helldivers 2 doesn’t do a fantastic job of explaining how it works, so, especially for more casual players, ignorance may be bliss.
What can be done? The Helldivers 2 community has come up with a few solutions. For a start, the game itself could do with clearly letting players know that failing to finish an operation results in a hit to Super Earth. Another suggestion is that eradicate missions are locked as the final mission in an operation. But even that has its downside, as it limits player choice. Perhaps the best course of action is to issue exclusive rewards to players when a planet is liberated, which would theoretically at least, make the war effort a more tangible goal than simply role-playing.
Now Arrowhead appears to have sorted out Helldivers 2’s server issues, it has time to return to its original post-launch plan, so hopefully we’ll get an idea of what to expect in terms of new content soon. In the meantime, be sure to tell Super Earth if you suspect anyone of being a farmer. Do your part!
If you’re playing, be sure to check out IGN’s comprehensive Helldivers 2 guide.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.