In a new campaign brief video, developer Arrowhead Game Studios has revealed the new objective for Helldivers 2 players – to take on more Terminids. The narrative for this new war waged against the bugs revolves around the construction of TCS 2.0 – a large wall that will block Terminid advances. The video describes TCS 2.0 as being “bigger, better, and safer than Termicide 1 ever was.”
Successfully aiding in the construction of TCS 2.0 will reward players with a new gun – the R-4 Hyena Marksman Rifle.
“The Ministry of Defense has approved a bold new initiative to make the galaxy safe again,” explains the video’s narrator. “Protecting our citizens from fascism behind an impenetrable barrier of democratic resilience. Construction is already underway on the new TCS 2.0. Bigger. Better. And safer than Termicide 1 ever was.”
Fans of Helldivers 2 will recall the Terminid outbreak during the Second Galactic War, which led to the engagement of the Terminid Control System (TCS) – a bug extermination network revolving around the use of Termicide-dispensing towers across entire planets. At the time, players were tasked with pushing the Terminid advance back to the Umlaut Sector, where the towers would then be built by S.E.A.F. engineers.
The result was the total extermination of every Terminid on planets where TCS was successfully built. Unfortunately, however, the Helldivers weren’t successful at first, with large Terminid swarms forcing a retreat for S.E.A.F. engineers. Eventually, the TCS would be activated, wiping the Terminid forces off those planets.
Interestingly, the original TCS would end up failing, with the same planets seeing new Terminid population surges, with some planets even seeing exponential population growth. In the story, this was linked to Termicide exposure, which seemingly mutated Terminids to bolster their numbers further. TCS would eventually be decommissioned, since the Terminids on those planets were also growing more resistant to it.
This latest story beat follows up on the massive update Helldivers 2 got earlier this month. Among other things, the update brought in a new Galactic Campaigns system that has been described by Arrowhead Game Studios as “the next evolution of Major Orders.” Rather than focusing on single orders, the new system now revolves around campaigns over the course of between 1 and 3 weeks. It also offers players more clarity about their objectives, giving them a better idea of the stakes of the current story and the rewards they will earn for participating.
“We want to make these rewards special because we also think players should earn more than just medals,” explained game director Mikael Eriksson.
The update also introduced a new Control Center terminal in the players’ ships where they could better manage their Galactic Campaign efforts and any Major Orders they were working towards. Along with this, it brought in a new Forest (Fall) biome and a series of balancing changes to weapons, armors, Stratagems, and enemies.
Helldivers 2 is available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. Last month, the studio also unveiled its collaboration with Games Workshop to work on a new Legendary Warbond featuring weapons and gear from Warhammer 40,000.
