"Face the unknown," reads the lone message of a new Helldivers 2 trailer published today.
Helldivers 2's next major update is coming August 12. The teaser is light on details, but it's certainly illustrative of what Super Earth will be up against. We see a helldiving teddy bear being consumed by the void—a tear in space that's currently eating up big chunks of the galaxy. The bear is ripped apart limb by limb by some psychic presence before the teddy reappears on a jungle planet. In the reflection of its eye, we see a tall, rounded biped alien reach to pick it up, then cut to release date.
All signs point to a new Illuminate threat. The third Helldivers 2 faction, colloquially known as the squids, have been quiet throughout 2026. Not since last year's invasion of Super Earth have the squids been a legitimate threat to democracy. While we were busy exterminating bugs in caves and taking the fight to Cyberstan, the Illuminate were shoring up their forces. Now, they're back with a new vanguard.
It's been a few months since I clocked in for helldiving duty, so I was surprised to find the lower quadrant of the galactic war map—the area where Illuminate fighting tends to go down—currently looks all kinds of messed up:
(Image credit: Arrowhead Game Studios)Several entire planets have been swallowed up by the void, and next, they're coming for our teddy bears. Some believe the teaser is suggesting Super Earth itself will once again be a battleground, though the bear could symbolize the human colonies of outer rim planets.
If you don't mind the possible spoiler for next week's update, many are convinced the figure in the teaser is one of the Cultists, a new faction of Illuminate with powerful magic abilities.
Anything new for the squids is exciting, because despite how far the faction has come since their surprise introduction in 2024, they've always been the army with the least variety. The addition of Leviathan ships, Stingray jets, and Fleshmobs has helped a lot, but they could really use some enemies that send a chill down a diver's spine.
Not so coincidentally, August 12 also marks the arrival of the Warhammer 40,000 crossover warbond, which includes three weapons and two armor sets from the Warhammer universe. No price announced on that one yet, but expect it to be more expensive than a standard $10 warbond.
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