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The latest Helldivers 2 Major Order tasked players with completely eradicating the Automatons from the galaxy. After a rocky start, Helldivers finally found their groove and the Major Order was successfully completed with a day to spare. Whether this means the Automatons are no more, paving way for a new threat such as The Illuminate remains to be seen. But, players have been noticed some strange occurrences with the Automatons which may hint that the robots knew their time was coming to an end.
U/Aeywen took to Reddit to detail a strange occurrence that they experienced with the Automatons. The players noticed that some of the robots would choose not to fight them and would instead follow them around saying,
“I’ve had 3 occasions where if i let him follow me there enemy will scan and ignore me until i attack them or get ridiculously close to a tank or devastator, not trying to make peace, just after data. People really should be doing more experimentation on the behavior of the enemy near defeat, if you find a basic bot whose eyes don’t turn red, and point your gun tat it a bit, then ignore it, and you let it follow you around, other bots will scan then ignore you, this is obviously a last-ditch effort to trick you into not shooting it in a desperate attempt at survival, but deserves the research.”
It turns out that this isn’t an isolated incident as many other players have noticed similar incidents in recent days, including U/P_F_M who said “I can recall at least 5 such incidents of other divers and one mine, where two bots were following me like best buddies and as a bonus, they were immortal.”
U/Exact-Worldliness-70 noted that they have seen other Automatons shooting at these peaceful robots, which could indicate that they are traitors and it isn’t a glitch. “I’ve seen other bots shooting at these peaceful bots. They treat their deserters the same way we do.”
Whether the robots are deserters or not, U/TooFewSecrets has wondered whether it could be an intended part of the lore, especially with the latest Major Order tasking players with completely eradicating the Automatons. It is possible that the robots surrended in order to survive the eradication. “I really wonder if this is a bug in the game or if it’s meant to actually be some subtle lore AI behavior showing they don’t want to murder humans.”
Not all players are as merciful though, with U/Lunar_Reaper demanding that no robots must be left alive, saying “If the enemy ever attempts to engage in diplomacy, SHOOT THEM. We mustn’t believe in their lies.”
And U/Kaloii sees it as the ultimate form of betrayal saying “Any form of diplomacy with bots and bugs is treason.”
While some Automatons may appear to be harmless, that doesn’t mean you can let your guard because most of them still need a taste of democracy. To ensure their planets are liberated, we highly recommend checking out our Helldivers 2 best weapons guide and best armor guide so you can create the perfect load out to to take out every robot that stands in your way.
