The Darkest Theory About Helldivers 2's Terminids

If you've only played a little bit of "Helldivers 2," you might think that the best part about the game is the extensive arsenal, the top-notch combat, or the stellar community. If you've been playing for a while, then you know that the game's real appeal is the opportunity to piece together an interstellar mystery concerning the fate of the human race.

Galactic warfare is at the center of "Helldivers 2," but we don't know much about who we're fighting or why. The Automatons are creepy robots that potentially have a dark origin story (but no clear goals), and the Illuminate are still just a rumor on the horizon. Of all the enemy factions, the Terminids have always seemed the most straightforward: They're big bugs that want to do big bug things. That's the official story anyway, and Super Earth claims it needs to destroy the bugs because they always happen to infest planets full of valuable resources.

Players have long suspected there's more to the story, but fans are finally starting to put together ideas of what's really going on with the bugs. The current theories implicate Super Earth in the spread of the bugs — just one more piece of evidence that the Helldivers are making the galaxy worse. Forget liberating planets from Terminid control, because you might be the one infecting the galaxy with the bugs in the first place.

One small question has been nagging at players since the very beginning of "Helldivers 2": How are the Terminids getting around? It's not just that we have a sneaking suspicion that Terminid ships aren't as advanced as ours (if they even have them), but also that the Terminids are eerily good at popping up wherever the Helldivers go. The bugs always seem to be at the front of the war, and there's a new prevailing theory about why that is.

One theory posits that the Terminids might be piggybacking off of Super Earth's supply lines. Thanks to a bit of incompetence on the part of High Command, the bugs may have secretly been swimming in our wake all this time. Redditors have pointed out that if spores are tied to Terminid procreation, it's possible that Helldiver ships are becoming infected on battlegrounds and inadvertently transporting the bugs to other worlds. This theory is pretty alarming, because it somewhat implies that we'll never be able to defeat the bugs. We might actually be their taxi service without even realizing it, which could mean that the bugs eventually get shipped back to Super Earth. All that said, this theory is downright calming when compared to another idea that's slowly taking hold in the community.

There's an even more alarming explanation for why the Terminids seem to be moving throughout the galaxy via Super Earth's pre-established supply lines. It's possible that High Command is purposefully seeding the bugs throughout the galaxy.

Some fans think that the bugs are a propaganda tool that High Command is using to keep the citizens of Super Earth scared and enlisting in the Helldivers. The theory points to in-game references from NPCs about the genetic experiments High Command has performed on Terminids. There are also messages that play over illegal Terminid broadcasts that claim the government is using Terminids to secure its own power over the galaxy's resources. This theory partially explains why Termicide, a tool Super Earth sent out weeks ago, failed to kill the bugs and instead made them stronger. High Command is either wildly incompetent or maniacally plotting ways to maintain control over the planet. We could already infer that the government of Super Earth isn't particularly benevolent, but if this theory turns out to be true, then it fully changes the concept of who the bad guys really are in "Helldivers 2."