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High Command, we've got a problem: Helldivers 2 players have embraced the 'Chaosdiver' life after rebelling against Super Earth, and they've even designed a cape
Helldivers 2 players, known as "Chaosdivers," are rebelling against the game's developer, Arrowhead Studios, over recent balance changes, expressing their frustration through in-game behavior and social media campaigns.
A group of treasonous Helldivers 2 players branding themselves "Chaosdivers" are full-on rebelling against Super Earth, and in case you're wondering just how severe the situation has become, they've even designed their own logo and cape.
Seemingly in response to recent balancing changes deemed unsavory by the community, there's now an increasingly concentrated movement to simply ignore High Command's authority and give way to the Automatons and Terminids. The group has been gaining traction on social media, with the top of the Helldivers subreddit at the time of writing largely dominated by memes and discussion surrounding the mutineers. There's even a whole Chaosdivers subreddit with 365 current members.
It's unclear precisely how much of this whole campaign amounts to tongue in cheek bluster and how much actually translates to in-game behavior, but if it is all one big act, its actors sure are committed to the bit. Right now, the unofficial Helldivers 2 Galactic Map website paints a pretty grim picture, suggesting all of this negative momentum is indeed having a significant impact on the liberation front.
Reddit user spikywobble shared their own experience with the Chaosdivers, saying their game host "would purposely kill whoever joined while typing traitorous stuff in chat and grief."
"I am fine with people expressing their opinion to AH but please do not take it as an excuse to ruin the dive of working people who only have a couple hours a week to play," said spikywobble.
In contrast, a Chaosdiver going by hitman2b on Reddit explained their own in-canon motivation for turning against Super Earth in response to a player appalled by what they were seeing on the battlefield: "To put it simply if we have to go with a lore explanation it would be Super Earth betrayed us Helldivers by making our weapons worse."
Chaosdiver organizers have even started sharing advertisements to recruit new members, and I'll be completely frank with y'all, they're pretty compelling. From pizza Fridays and free tanks to a fan-made custom cape representing the rebels, it's hard to deny the appeal. I mean, how bad are robots and bugs really?
As far as an end goal, there seems to be a few potential outcomes here. A) Arrowhead could just ignore the whole thing and wait for it to pass. B) It could acknowledge the coordinated outcry and dial back the nerfs with a big update. C) This is a hail mary, but it could make the rebel faction official by adding the branding into the game. Or D) Arrowhead could recognize Chaosdivers as a fun community-driven twist and warn Helldivers of their treasonous ways.
Arrowhead hasn't explicitly acknowledged the Chaosdivers yet, but it has responded to the backlash to recent balancing changes introduced in the Escalation of Freedom update. "We didn't hit our target with the last update," reads a recent announcement from game director Mikael E, who pledged to fix flamethrowers, "prevent excessive ragdolling," and "rework Chargers" in 60 days. More to the point, the announcement said Arrowhead will "continue to re-examine our approach to balance," adding that "balance should be fun, not 'balanced' for the sake of balance."
Whether that's enough to quell the rebellion will be decided by the rebels. That's democracy in action, folks.