Helldivers 2 players get a new sweet treat along with surprise DLC: melee weapons

Helldivers 2 players are already on the front lines against the game’s new, third enemy faction in Omens of Tyranny, a surprise update that dropped Thursday night. The Illuminate have arrived — or, at least, a forward fleet representing the faction — and they’re a mean bunch of space squids. Developer Arrowhead Game Studios followed up last night’s surprise update with a new Warbond, which includes another much-requested community feature: melee weapons.

Players can pick up two melee weapons: the CQC-19 Stun Lance, a longer-range weapon Urban Legends Warbond, which costs 1000 super credits, or the CQC-30 Stun Baton, which is available in the premium shop for 200 super credits. Melee weapons are under their own category in the secondary weapon slot, and can be used in combination with Stratagems like the Ballistic Shield.

Between the addition of a new melee category, the arrival of the Illuminates, a vehicle to ride in with your Helldiver friends, and urban environments, the collective cup of Helldivers 2 players is running over. Arrowhead has answered some of the community’s loudest demands, and players seem pretty happy to test their new weapons against the Illuminate and their zombie hordes.

Speaking of the Illuminate, they’re very interesting to fight, but I have the feeling we haven’t seen everything the faction has to offer quite yet. They’re slow and deliberate compared to the bugs and bots, but they have powerful psychics, intimidating walkers, and old school-style UFOs that summon new enemies to the battleground. Their most numerous unit is the Voteless, a zombified human strongly reminiscent of Husks from the Mass Effect games.

One interesting fact is that the Walkers, the Illuminate heavy unit, appears even at lower difficulties. The Bile Titan, Charger, and Factory Walker are all units from the other two factions that won’t appear until the Helldiver selects a specific difficulty. With this in mind, it seems likely that we’ll be seeing more squids roll out over the course of future patches. A sick new ride and melee weapons are nice, but I wouldn’t get too comfortable quite yet.