Dont let the propaganda fool you Helldivers 2 definitely added flying bugs
Arrowhead CEO backtracked on his previous assertion that bugs couldn’t fly
Just as Helldivers 2 tweaked the spawn rates for the game’s super-armored Terminids, developer Arrowhead Game Studios has added a new threat: flying bugs. Arrowhead did not mention the Terminids with wings in its March 13 patch notes, but players on social media and forums reported spotting the creatures in-game. The new Terminids are called Shriekers, and are quite terrifying as they dive and attack.
Arrowhead warned in the patch notes that the changed Chargers and Bile Titans weren’t lowering difficulty. But players were unprepared for exactly what we were in for.
Keeping in line with Helldivers 2 lore, Arrowhead is denying the existence of the bugs: “Everyone knows that ‘Bugs can’t fly,’” CEO Johan Pilestedt posted to X, formerly Twitter. “And I’m not alone in thinking this. The Ministry of Truth agrees that this is propaganda from bug sympathizers that want to brainwash good people. #Lies”
However, on Friday, Pilestedt changed his tune on X, writing that he always knew there was a “possibility” that the flying bugs existed — and also that everybody knows bugs can fly. He also added, in Helldivers 2 fashion, that it may or may not have to do with a recent major order that tasked players with testing and activating Termicide Towers, which would theoretically wipe the bugs out.
“To those unpatriotic citizens that question the timing of TCS and Termicide testing and deployment - this is completely coincidental and unrelated,” he wrote. “9/9 Reputable and Super Earth sanctioned scientists agree.”
This update — or propaganda, depending on who you ask — is part of Helldivers 2’s evolving story. Though the game doesn’t have a campaign, the storytelling is everywhere: Starting from the intro and tutorial, Helldivers 2 sets up a world of propaganda and unabashed patriotism. The government is not fascist! It’s pushing for freedom! As Polygon’s Cass Marshal put it, “We know exactly what kind of war this is, and how each individual Helldiver is doomed to get dissolved by bile or exploded by a robot,” they wrote. “But they don’t know that, and by the time the revelation wears off, the entire thing becomes a wonderfully dark comedy.”
Flying bugs and the denial of it all is just another piece of the Helldivers 2 story. You may remember a similar situation with the addition of mechs. And now that flying Terminids have been confirmed, we expect the game to continue and surprise us.
Update (March 22): Added an update from Pilestedt where he confirmed that flying Terminids indeed exist in-game and that it was likely due to the Termicide testing from a previous major order.