The unthinkable is happening in Helldivers 2 right now, as the Illuminate invasion has reached Super Earth itself, giving players the daunting task of defending Managed Democracy on its homeworld.

“The worst nightmare of all those who fight for Managed Democracy has been made a grim reality,” reads the announcement.

“Despite the valiant efforts of our Helldivers to push back the fleet, the Illuminate have reached Super Earth. Now they are swarming our cities, terrorizing citizens, and destroying our infrastructure. It’s time to rise up and take arms and fight for the precious foundations and soil of Democracy manifest. Helldivers, return to our planet and defend what is rightfully ours.”

While human settlements were featured in Helldivers 2 since the Omens of Tyranny update introduced the first Illuminate enemies at the end of last year, the urban sprawl of Super Earth will take that to the next level. Battles on Super Earth will feature huge skyscrapers, busy streets and even playgrounds that you’ll have to fight the Illuminate scourge from.

The one goal is to repel the Illuminate invasion by fighting to gain ground, battling alongside less elite SEAF troops who will fight autonomously, but can also be ordered to follow Helldivers around – salute them and they’ll join your fight – and activating Planetary Defense Cannons to blast away at the Illuminate fleet.

Players should be more powerful than ever thanks to the primary weapon customisation that was added last week alongside the expanded surplus options. These were already being put to use against new Illuminate enemies including the Crescent Overseer and the freaky Fleshmob.

It’s not clear how long the game’s community will have to try and stave off the Illuminate attack, but should they fail, this will be the end of the first campaign in the game, which started with the launch back in early 2024. Don’t worry, the galactic map will reset if that happens.

The update does also have some fixes and tweaks, so here’s the patch notes for Helldivers 2 version 1.003.002:

Overview

• Crash fixes
• Fix for some corpses flinging the Helldivers great distances
• Audio fix for the Stingray
• Miscellaneous fixes

Fixes

Resolved Top Priority issues:

• Attempting to purchase a Master of Ceremony item in the Super Store when on PlayStation 5 while using the “Quality” visual setting will no longer change page
• Crash Fixes, Hangs and Soft-locks:
• Fixed a crash that could occur when trying to enter the Weapon Customization menu on certain weapons
• Fixed crash that could happen when killing illuminates that were about to spawn

Weapons and Stratagems

• Fix drones not returning to backpack correctly

Miscellaneous Fixes

• Fixed an issue where Stingray strafing attack sounds could get stuck for a while
• Fixed corpses of some enemies sometimes sending players flying across the map

Source: PS Blog, Helldivers 2 Zendesk