Super Earth's mother ship has leaked. Developer Arrowhead Game Studios has publicly stated how unprepared it was for the huge popularity of Helldivers 2 at launch.

Over the past week, videos of players accessing unannounced rides have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times on TikTok and YouTube. Players have joined quick-play lobbies to discover teammates piloting walking mechs equipped with machine guns and missile launchers. Officially, the Mechs will be available "soon." Even more surprising is the discovery of an unannounced four-person transport vehicle. Several videos of a "Rover" buggy with turrets (like Halo's Warthog) on its back have appeared, as well as evidence of a large APC van with multiple guns. Mysterious new weapons also appeared over the weekend, including a "Commando" rocket launcher and a "Quasar" laser cannon.

The main way for players to access the unreleased content appears to be through cheat software. Elsewhere, Helldivers 2 datamaniacs have reportedly found references to more than a dozen weapons and stratagems that are not currently present in the game. [But since this is Helldivers 2 we are talking about, a game in which a dedicated dungeon master is at the helm of galactic warfare to a greater or lesser degree, it is unlikely that the cheats tell the whole story. Are these all commonplace leaks, or are they another story being manipulated by Arrowhead?

There is good reason to believe that some of these leaks are not leaks, but rather sneak peeks intentionally provided by Arrowhead itself; as explained prior to the release of Helldivers 2, Arrowhead's gamemaster tool has the ability to spawn enemies, give special strategy access, and includes the ability to intervene in a player's live session by granting strategy access.

This may explain the increase in mech drops. If Arrowhead were to slowly distribute mechs to random sessions, it would accomplish two things: gather initial impressions and data about the mechs themselves and generate a buzz worthy of a 500kg bomb.

The problem here is that some people are definitely using cheats to spawn something, and they are not trying to hide it. However, I think Arrowhead is drinking in the mystique and even leaking a bit with impunity.

Last night I was playing Stratagem Hero on my ship and noticed that the mini-game had a stratagem code that does not currently exist. The flare code has actually been in the game for several weeks, and several players who have shared it online have kicked it off as a remnant of a cut stratagem. It's certainly possible, but what if it's a teaser for a future mission type that is so dark that you need a flare to see where you're going?

One point toward the "inside job" theory is Arrowhead's unusual silence about the leak. While it is not unusual for studios to ignore or refuse to comment on leaks, it is unusual for Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt to leave a major event in "Helldivers 2" untweeted. Helldivers 2" community and has been a constant presence in the community, giving his thoughts on everything from monetization, player numbers, and balance to console rivalries and sales figures.

He also professes to keep aspects of the roadmap secret so that "Helldivers 2" can "surprise and delight" players.

The first month of "Helldivers 2" is trying to take me back to the first year of "Fortnite," when Epic snuck map changes, new items, and narrative events into the game without warning, trusted, correctly, that they would share it widely. In the weeks that followed, the status of a Fortnite cube named Kevin made front-page news; Epic seems to have lost its appetite for "surprise and delight" in Fortnite, and these days is more about brand crossover than anything else. Hell Diver 2" may be different.

By not laying all the cards of a roadmap on the table (for now) and establishing the galactic war as a live, ever-changing narrative, Arrowhead has cultivated the belief that anything is possible. The fight against bugs can be interrupted by a sudden robotic invasion. Sometimes railguns are free for 24 hours to celebrate the liberation of a planet. Why can't the mechs arrive earlier?

If all goes according to plan, we will never know for sure how much Arrowhead has its thumb on the scale. Cheat or not, intentional leak or not, Helldivers 2 has accomplished something rare in video games: a genuine conspiracy.