Our worst fears have been confirmed. Today, Super Earth’s government announced that the Terminids on the barrier planets players worked so hard to spray with Termicide have only mutated to be more efficient democracy-destroying bugs.
The latest Major Order in Helldivers 2 tasks players with returning to the barrier planets they worked so diligently to liberate and set up Termicide Towers on. At the time, players were concerned about the long-term effects of Termicide on both humans and Terminids, but were told the bug spray was completely safe for us and would kill 100% of our enemies. It turns out the scientists who made it were wrong, and all we did was create a new supercolony of Terminids.
Termicide made Helldivers 2‘s most annoying enemy even more annoying, and it’s all our fault
In Helldivers 2, Termicide Towers were used on the four planets in the Umlaut sector to create a wall of defense between Super Earth and Terminid space. The Termicide they spewed out killed 99.6% of the bugs, but the remaining 0.04% have mutated so much that their increased reproductive capabilities have led to the creation of a supercolony.
Players are currently fighting their way to the supercolony on Meridia in the hopes of eradicating this new strain of Terminid. However, they’re making disturbing discoveries along the way that are leading us all to believe the bugs gained more mutations than increased reproduction.
User OK_simple1687 on the Helldivers 2 subreddit has spotted that the Termicide Towers are now encrusted with what has to be a Terminid secretion. They’re concerned it could be the sign of something big coming, and we’ve already had the husks of Hive Lords pop up on other planets, so this could be yet another indicator of their resurgence.
The scariest and most annoying mutation I’ve seen is for Stalkers. Before the latest patch and Major Order, they could cloak their bodies, but there would still be a vague silhouette, allowing you to see them against the environment behind them. Now, they’re pretty much invisible, as you can see in the Reddit post above.
I cannot describe how terrifying this is when you’re playing a mission. Having a Stalker pop up out of nowhere while you’re running between objectives is one thing, but if you’re in the heat of battle and six of them suddenly appear and launch themselves at you, it’s enough to make you throw the controller out of the window.
The post from the official Helldivers 2 account explaining the Termicide Tower situation explains that there could be more mutations out there that we’ve not seen yet. I can’t deny that I’m both hesitant and excited to discover these new strains of Terminid, and they’re almost certainly going to cause a few freak-outs on the game’s subreddit.