Helldivers 2 Secretly Adds Flying Bug, Denies Their Existence

Helldivers 2 players were tasked this week with activating the “Terminid Control System” in new missions rolled out to continue the evolving fight against the Terminid threat. While the Helldivers 2 story progressed in that way, the Terminid armies evolved, too, with players now spotting flying bugs in their missions much to their surprise. According to Helldivers 2 devs, however, reports of the flying bugs are simply instances of “propaganda from bug sympathizers,” and the Ministry of Truth from Super Earth urged Helldivers not to put any stock into these kinds of rumors.

The flying bugs are very much real, however, with the comments from the devs playing into the satirical Super Earth in Helldivers 2. These flying Terminids are apparently tied to certain side objectives in missions, too, and players are already devising the best strategies to take them out.

Helldivers 2 Players Spot Flying Bugs

These flying Terminids seem to have been added after the game’s latest update was released, a patch which nerfed the Chargers but apparently added a new kind of threat to deal with. Players posted in the Helldivers 2 subreddit their encounters with the flying bugs in clips like the one below that showed them descending on parties.

Similar posts were shared by other players who also encountered these flying Terminids. In one of those posts, a player explained that they were on a Difficulty 5 mission on Fenrir III and that they were tasked with taking out something called a “Shrieker Lair” similar to the Stalker Lairs. These “Shriekers” apparently only started coming out when the players got close to the objective, and based on what the player said, big Stratagems like the Eagle 500kg Bomb made short work of the Shriekers.

So, what do the ruling powers of Super Earth say about the encounters with Shriekers? In true Helldivers 2 fashion, Super Earth says that these don’t exist and that players shouldn’t worry about them. Helldivers 2 creative director and Arrowhead Game Studios CEO Johan Pilestedt tweeted about the “flying bugs” and said “everyone knows that ‘Bugs can’t fly.’”

“And I’m not alone in thinking this,” he said. “The Ministry of Truth agrees that this is propaganda from bug sympathizers that want to brainwash good people.”

As we saw with the way that mechs were first teased and then fully introduced into Helldivers 2, Arrowhead Game Studios has been teasing new features and additions to the game first by adding them here and there without actually telling players that those things were in the game. Players find them, talk about the new features and share clips online, and only after the community is abuzz with the new content does Arrowhead either address it while roleplaying as the forces of Super Earth. It’s a strategy that worked well with the mechs, and it looks like it’s working again with these flying bugs.

How or if this will be tied into the Terminid Control System story development remains to be seen, but expect to see more of these “Shriekers” and other new threats in the future.