A sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises—in Helldivers 2. It isn’t technically the eve of Helldivers 2’s Xbox launch yet, though with three consecutive Major Orders—a first for Helldivers 2—Arrowhead is ensuring that Xbox recruits arrive during a momentous and calamitous occasion.

Indeed, August 26 will already be special due to the highly anticipated Halo 3: ODST Legendary Warbond, which boasts nostalgic Halo items with Helldivers 2 flavor, such as the MA5C Assault Rifle and M90A Shotgun. Players will have no problem earning a big chunk of medals toward this Legendary Warbond if they manage to conquer all three of the Major Orders that have been hurled at them, but it’ll truly take a Rohan-sized helping of additional reinforcements to secure a victory against every enemy faction in Helldivers 2.

Helldivers 2 Needs YOU—and Every Other Available Player

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Somewhat hilariously, literally every active mission effort is contributing to Helldivers 2’s triple Major Order ordeal. It began with one and quickly escalated to three, encouraging every enemy faction to play a massive role in the upcoming Helldivers 2 Xbox launch.

Now, Xbox players will be diving into missions amid one of the most demanding and daunting Major Order events in the game’s history, and Arrowhead is firmly relying on Xbox players to turn the tide for players on PC and PlayStation 5 who presently don’t stand a chance of winning it by themselves. Each Major Order, with roughly seven days left a piece at the time of this writing, reads as follows:

Terminid Major Order

  • Kill the designated number of Terminids to stop their onslaught.
    • Kill 1,103,421/6,000,000,000 Terminids (18.4%)
      • Reward: 55 Warbond medals

Automaton Major Order

  • Dismantle the designated number of Automatons to stop their advance.
    • Kill 417,429,954/1,500,000,000 Automatons (27.8%)
      • Reward: 55 Warbond medals

Illuminate Major Order

  • Eradicate the designated Illuminate combatants. You must buy time for our reinforcements; the survival of the Federation is at stake.
    • Kill 182,269,341/1,000,000,000 Illuminate (18.2%)
      • Reward: 55 Warbond medals

Plus, if that wasn’t enough, an absurd number of dispatches are active at the moment, with more sure to come. These include:

  • Significantly higher Factory Strider numbers have been observed on Fenmire.
  • SEAF Air forces have re-established low-orbit parity against the Illuminate. Extraction times have been returned to normal.
  • The Automaton Incineration Corps has assaulted Tarsh.
  • The Automaton Incineration Corps has assaulted Bekvam 3.
  • An Automaton cyberattack on the Democracy Space Station has caused catastrophic failures of multiple systems, particularly targeting the Eagle Convocation Bay. Multiple fighter crew personnel fell victim to sudden depressurization. The Eagle Storm Tactical Action will be offline for an estimated 72 hours until emergency repairs are completed.
  • The Automaton Jet Brigade has assaulted Curia.
  • A massive outbreak of Impaler Terminids has been reported on Ursica 11.

On August 26, there will only be five days left to complete Helldivers 2’s Major Orders—an unenviable and Herculean task for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S players, even altogether. That said, it’s unclear how many Xbox players can realistically be expected to crest the hill and come flooding downward to slay Terminids, Automatons, and the Illuminate.

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Another interesting facet of this whole event will be whether or not Helldivers 2’s servers can handle the theoretical overload involved if tens of thousands of recruits are actively diving into missions on August 26.

Either way, it’ll be stunning to see Helldivers 2’s player counts skyrocket and for nearly every Helldiver to be adorned in Halo 3: ODST gear. Arrowhead’s thumb is directly on players’ pulses and the studio couldn’t be amplifying the stakes more perfectly with only a couple of days remaining before PlayStation and Xbox reunite in what may hopefully be one of the industry’s best showcases of console marriages and an adoration for players coming together to combat a common enemy: horrific sci-fi aliens and robots.

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Helldivers 2 Tag Page Cover Art
9 /10

Helldivers 2
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Third-Person Shooter
Extraction Shooter
Action
Science Fiction
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Systems
PlayStation-1 Xbox-1 PC-1
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Top Critic Avg: 83 /100 Critics Rec: 91%
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Released
February 8, 2024
ESRB
Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, In-Game Purchases, Users Interact
Developer(s)
Arrowhead Game Studios, Nixxes
Publisher(s)
Sony Interactive Entertainment, PlayStation Publishing
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Helldivers 2 Press Image 1
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WHERE TO PLAY

DIGITAL
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Engine
bitsquid
Multiplayer
Online Co-Op
Cross-Platform Play
All platforms
Franchise
Helldivers
Number of Players
1-4 players (online)
Genre(s)
Third-Person Shooter, Extraction Shooter, Action, Science Fiction
OpenCritic Rating
Strong