Every New Helldivers 2: Escalation Of Freedom Enemy Explained

Democracy is back and better than ever. On August 6, PlayStation and Arrowhead Game Studios will drop a massive expansion for "Helldivers 2," and we've already gotten a peek at tons of new content coming to the game. This update, "Escalation of Freedom," aims to both improve and diversify the content of "Helldivers 2," to keep the experience fresh. While fans have been excited to dig into several aspects of the new expansion, such as an additional difficulty rank for missions or the various quality-of-life improvements, the new enemies have been seen as a highlight of the announcement. 

"Helldivers 2" already has a wide variety of foes to give players a unique challenge during every mission. However, even this veritable menagerie of creepy-crawlies has become a bit mundane. Arrowhead needed to switch things up after "Helldivers 2" lost a chunk of its playerbase, resulting in the biggest overhaul so far. Here are the new enemies the devs have teased, along with some other evil surprises we're pretty sure are on the way.

To kick off the big announcement, Arrowhead CCO Johan Pilestedt and Design Director Niklas Malmborg revealed an enemy that veteran fans of the "Helldivers" franchise should recognize. Joining the insectoid legions of the Terminids is the Impaler. This dangerous enemy is both massive and heavily armored, providing a difficult challenge for even the most stalwart Helldivers. Unlike other Terminids, the Impaler will root itself into the ground, spawning tentacles that can attack the player even over a large distance. Simply running away and keeping a safe distance has largely been a go-to strategy when dealing with Terminids, but the Impaler is set to shake things up a little, using its long-range appendages to off various escape routes.

Despite its horrific appearance and demeanor, fans are already excited to see the ol' Impaler join "Helldivers 2" in the new update. In the comments section below the "Escalation of Freedom" announcement trailer, fans are jokingly reminiscing about their experiences with the tentacled beast. "I still have flashbacks from these," wrote one fan. Another jokingly riffed on Pilestedt calling the creature a "fan-favorite" when discussing the Impaler, stating, "Fan Favorite = How can we further torture Helldivers in the name of democracy?" Regardless of your past experiences with the Impaler, it seems like this Terminid is ready to lay waste a whole new generation of Helldivers, and gamers wouldn't have it any other way.

After seeing the Impaler rear its ugly tentacles, you might think that's the worst of the worse. However, acting as an evolution of the standard Charger enemy, we have the Spore Charger bringing a new twist to the enemy's straightforward tactics. Chargers generally act exactly as their name suggests, dealing huge amounts of damage by ramming and trampling Helldivers who get too close. However, their large size also means that players usually get a heads-up when they're attacking, allowing players to react appropriately. This all changes with the Spore Charger, which is masked by a dense fog at all times. Players caught in the fog will have no idea when or where this massive enemy is coming from until they're right up on them.

While some fans are eager for this new enemy to join the ranks, many are more concerned that these new abilities will worsen some of the current issues posed by the baseline Chargers. One fan on the announcement video deadpans, "Adding Fog to Chargers to make them 'scary' as if them spawning out of thin air every 4 seconds wasn't enough." Overall, many comments agreed that although the Spore Charger is a neat idea, "Helldivers 2" still needs toad just the spawn rates and locations for the normal Chargers.

For the last of the new Terminid enemies coming to "Helldivers 2: Escalation of Freedom" (that we know of, at least), we have a new version of the Brood Commanders. Apparently, the Alpha Commander is set to be a much larger and deadlier variant. As most players already know, the Brood Commanders are already tricky, since they have the ability to summon swarms of allies to protect them.The new Alpha Commander will function very similarly, though it can apparently take way more punishment than the regular Brood Commanders — and so can their backup swarms.

Out of any of the new enemies, fans had the least to say about the new Alpha Commanders. While many of the other enemies bring about flashy new mechanics or interesting gimmicks, the Alpha Commander is more of a straightforward upgrade to a preexisting enemy. Hopefully, players will start to feel a little more excited for the new Commander variant when more information is released. In the meantime, it seems like players are pretty sure they can handle this baddie.

The Terminids aren't the only enemies getting a refresh. The Automatons are also receiving new artillery when "Escalation of Freedom" drops, in the form of Rocket Tanks. As the name suggests, these are massive vehicles that can fire long-range rockets to hit Helldivers from far away. Thankfully, the tanks fire in a large arcing pattern, presumably giving players plenty of time to react to the missiles as they rain from the sky. Players will no longer be able to camp and take out Automatons from afar, or else they risk sitting in range of the Rocket Tank's barrage.

Fans have seemed to latch onto the Rocket Tank more than any of the other dangers announced so far. Something about the visual of multiple missiles raining from an unsuspecting group of Helldivers has tickled the fancy of the community as a whole. Namely, the Rocket Tank has caused a rapid return of the "Warning, you are in range of enemy artillery" meme that is so popular in the player community. New variations are already popping up in response to the announcement, including, "Warning, you are in range of everything." 

Finally, a PlayStation blog post and clips from the announcement video also hint at many "other bot surprises" joining the game. Although they don't provide any specific information beyond the Rocket Tank, this suggests the game could receive some new Automaton types in the near future. Specifically, in the announcement video, when mentioning new enemies, the video shows off what appears to be a slightly more advanced variant of the Scout Strider, complete with additional weapons. However, nothing has been confirmed. Fans will just have to wait until August 6 to find out what surprises the Automaton armada has in store.

Though these are the only new enemies that have been announced so far, fans and data miners have been hard at work for months, searching for any information to give "Helldivers 2" fans as much hope as possible. Between theories that Xbox players may be joining "Helldivers 2" or leaks that hint at new items and enemies, the community is desperate to see what the future holds. Some data miners have successfully leaked "Helldivers 2" files that could reveal an entirely new faction being added to the game. It seems very possible that the Illuminate could be returning, judging by weapon designs and enemy character models found in the game's code.

For those who don't know, the Illuminate was a faction from the original "Helldivers," though they were defeated and disappeared during the transition to the sequel. Sporting advanced technology and tactical genius, these enemies provided a daunting challenge for those looking to take them on.

Introducing (or re-introducing) a new faction of enemies lines up perfectly with the way the developers were talking during the announcement trailer. It could be that the Illuminate is the surprise that the devs are teasing. After all, fans have already found details in "Helldivers 2" referencing the Illuminate and their history with Super Earth, so an assumption like this isn't too farfetched. The big question is: Will the Illuminate join in "Escalation of Freedom," or another future update?

After the announcement of "Helldivers 2: Escalation of Freedom," hype for the game is at an all-time high. The reaction to the new content announced — especially the new enemies — seems to be mostly positive, showing that there's still a lot of love for the embattled co-op shooter. "These guys struck gold by turning the universe into a constant changing and evolving conflict and not just a snapshot of a conflict," one fan wrote, referencing how naturally the universe of "Helldivers 2" evolves and grows exponentially with every new update. Another fan quipped, "WERE SO DEMOCRATICALLY BACK" garnering over four thousand likes with just one simple line. Even Helldivers who took a break from the game are impressed by the care going into the new update, with one commenter stating, "Wow this will actually make me go back into Helldivers, this looks great."

Not all comments are as positive as these, however. Some fans are still unable to play "Helldivers 2" after it was taken down in multiple countries and are desperate to rejoin the game for the new update. One hopeful player begged, "For the love of Freedom, bring us back to Democracy." Despite this ugly wrinkle to the game's legacy, most players are still optimistic that the patch will be the revitalization that "Helldivers 2" needs, bringing a whole new age of freedom and democracy for everyone to enjoy.