Helldivers 2 will reveal its hotly anticipated Warhammer 40,000 crossover on July 30, Sony has announced. But in the meantime, we have confirmation of one weapon that will be included in the Legendary Warbond.
The brief teaser video, below, shows a Bolt Pistol, lifted straight from the Warhammer 40,000 armory. Bolt Pistols are used by many different factions and units in Games Workshop’s grimdark far future setting, but it’s particularly fitting in the hands of an Astra Militarum (formerly the Imperial Guard) soldier.
Attention, Helldivers.
July 30 has been designated as a date of operational significance. Update your calendar accordingly.
Further briefing to follow. pic.twitter.com/ekfvkBsWFc
Even before the Warhammer 40,000 crossover was announced, fans had spoken about how it would be the perfect fit for Helldivers 2, which sees groups of four soldiers essentially play the role of cannon fodder in the endless galactic war against horrible alien monsters. You can quite easily equate Helldivers’ alien bug race, the Terminids, to Warhammer 40,000’s Tyranids, for example. The Automatons aren’t a million miles away from the mindless mechanical Necrons, either.
Warhammer 40,000 is something Arrowhead is often asked about in interviews, and by that I mean that I have asked the team about it in interviews because I love this stuff. In April last year, I asked Alex Bolle, production director on Helldivers 2, about a potential Warhammer 40,000 collab, and he said there was discussions being had. "Obviously Warhammer 40,000 is something that a lot of guys internally love to death," he said at the time. "So the devs are discussing, the devs are proposing stuff, and the hype is building. So these are discussions internally that we are having. Warhammer 40,000, I can't really tell you. Maybe. Who knows? We'll see!"
Indeed, in 2024, Arrowhead's Johan Pilestedt published an extended list of IPs he “really would love to do a take on," and Warhammer 40,000 was right up there alongside the likes of Aliens, Starship Troopers, and Terminator.
As for what the Helldivers 2 x Warhammer 40,000 Warbond will include, after the Bolt Pistol reveal we can speculate about what else we’ll see. A Chainsword seems like a safe bet, as does the Astra Militarum’s iconic Lasgun. A Boltgun, however, might be a step too far for Helldivers 2 — it’s usually used by the genetically enhanced super soldiers known as the Space Marines, although there are versions of the Boltgun that can be used by standard humans.
As for armor, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Cadian-style Kasrkin and Scion armor sets for the soldiers of Super Earth. Cadia is one of the most famous planets in the Warhammer 40,000 setting, and its people some of the toughest in the Emperor’s human army. Cadia is no more (that’s a whole thing all its own), but its people live on, as do their wargear.
We’ll find out on July 30.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].
