Helldivers2 celebrated a moral victory last week when the community made a collective decision to save scores of innocent super-Earth children rather than unlock new strategies. Taking strike Three with an anti-tank mine suggests that we really shouldn't care about the new form of minefield, but it also shows that the Helldivers player base has a soft spot for kids. Well, human children.

In a cruel and unfortunately funny reversal of fate, Super Earth's latest major order is to wipe millions of Terminid children from the faces of the galaxy.

"Reduce Terminid population and clearing planet for civil settlement, utilizing new hive-breaker drills to purify their nurseries," reads a major order. 

Its Hive Breaker drill is subject to a new mission type available on Terminid Planet. It's a big map-type mission, similar to Meridia's Supercolony offensive, with much of the area expected to be completely overtaken by the crusty Terminid nest.

The Hive Breaker Drill mission I played today at Level 7 called for the culling of three nurseries at the opposite end of the map. The nursery itself looks like a huge nest with a lot of bug spawners. In the center of the nest, you will see a prompt to call the hive breaker. Pelicans drop cargo boxes on the battlefield, and the drill neatly unpacks itself in place. After a quick activation, the drill explodes after a 10-second countdown and barrels its onboard nucleus deep into the underground nursery.

This explosion is equivalent to the horticultural variety helbom, but what is unique to the hive breaker is the bottomless hole it left behind. As I stared into the black abyss and inhaled the smoke of a atomized terminal baby, the image of a recently hatched bug that I had just made a big hole in, taking a peaceful nap, came into my mind. A sucker punch from an adjacent hunter snapped me out of a short anti-freedom trance, and I went back to happily drilling a hole in the bug with a gun.

The new mission was my first extended time with a big balancing patch last week. I really like buffs on machine guns and non-explosive stratagems — automatic turrets and gatling strikes really pack the punch right now - but the lower spawn rates for bile Titans and chargers that stood out above all make Helldivers2 a bit easier." 13]

For the first time since launch, I have not always felt the pressure to have all the powerful orbital lasers and rail cannons on my load-out. I also have fewer frustrating scenarios where enemies emerge at incredible speeds and the entire mission gets out of control. Still, my randoms squad completed its hive-breaker mission without a spare respawn.

The main order demands a deep cleaning of 5 planets (Hellmire, Nivel43, Estanu, Crimsica, Fori Prime) in 1 week. With only 5 days left, divers are making steady progress with almost 2 planets released.