"We could never have predicted how far this game would go": Helldivers 2's biggest update yet is just the "first step" to "expand the game in big, meaningful ways"

Arrowhead Game Studios is promising that some major additions are coming to Helldivers 2 via its biggest update yet, Escalation of Freedom , early next month, but it's only the "first step" in a series of extensive changes.

"Our community continues to show us how strong we all are when united against the mindless Automatons and the scourge of the Terminid," the studio's social media and community manager Katherine Baskin says in the most recent PlayStation blog post.

"As we stand here, on the eve of the Escalation of Freedom, we reflect on the six months since launch. We could never have predicted how far this game would go and how many Citizens would answer Super Earth's call to arms!"

Arrowhead developers might already be shocked at "how far" their hit co-op shooter has come since the launch in February, but they've also been teasing how much further the game still has to go.

In the Escalation of Freedom announcement trailer below, design director Niklas Malmborg explains that the beefy update is only the team's "first step out of many where we're going to expand the game in big, meaningful ways." On August 6, that includes more mission variants where you're escorting bug babies, new enemy types that might tentacle their way through the ground, a fresh "Super Helldive" difficulty that'll probably convince my FitBit I'm having heart problems, and more.

But if all of that terrifying goodness is only the team's "first step," then what could possibly be up next? More of the same is the safest bet, although there's also the looming threat of The Illuminate , the returning alien faction from the first game that's been teased again and again over the last few months. Oh, and there's still a black hole / Dark Matter void still gaping somewhere in the Milky Way. That might be important.

Helldivers 2’s new Major Order tasks us with squashing 1 billion bugs as “Terminid aggression and expansion may increase in response.”