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Xbox players got access to Helldivers 2 just in time to watch millions of their comrades melt, burn, crumple, and otherwise perish horribly in the Terminid mines of planet Oshaune, which is quickly becoming one of the biggest graveyards in the game's history.
At the time of writing, per the Helldivers 2 companion app, over 156 million Helldivers 2 players have died on Oshaune. Granted, they took 7.1 billion bugs with them, but we still have a mission failure rate of 13.6% – which, from a cursory scan of the system, is among the worst in the entire game, and often by quite some distance.
Oshaune has been described in the community as "the hardest planet we have ever been on," and not without reason. Some of the numbers are explained by how big the game's current population is – again, the game just came to Xbox, and it's off to a flying start – but there's no questioning that Oshaune is a meat grinder.
"I love the way this sucks!" replies Redditor EvilSqueegee.
Others, like Reddit user fede123456789, have made more specific comparisons. "Oshaune is now officially worse than Malevelon Creek and our worst battle yet," they wrote in a top-rated post, alluding to the old bot battle so famously bloody, it was later immortalized in Helldivers canon.
Like Malevelon Creek, Oshaune has been a costly war of attrition. That said, I think a few factors separate it from the bot trenches of old.
The Oshaune expedition is just that – an expedition. The planet is under 1% liberated even with over 53,000 Helldivers 2 on the frontlines, and that's because liberation isn't the point. The in-game blurb says: "A limited-time expedition is being conducted into the Gloom on this planet, at significant cost."
Malevelon Creek was a perfect storm of stubbornness, obscured game systems, community misunderstandings, bugged and overpowered enemies, and a Major Order that was just hopeless enough to keep things dire without being so obviously doomed that everyone just gave up. The situation is a little different this time, and with the weaponry and player count we have today the Creek probably can't truly be replicated, though it is also brutal.
Granted, Oshaune also has bugged and arguably overpowered enemies, though I do think the technical issues are compounding that somewhat. Burrowing enemies, Stratagems deployed during cave sections, and some mission-critical fixtures seem to be misbehaving. There are also Hive Lords; can't forget those. But even then, Oshaune doesn't have 10 billion bots spawning in right on top of you. And as a defender of friction in games, I stand with the Helldivers asking Arrowhead to keep things as they are (while fixing technical mistakes and inconsistencies, obviously).
With Oshaune, we are knowingly jumping into a woodchipper in the name of science and future missions. A quote from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has been making the rounds among Helldivers, and it feels apt: "For those who come after."
One thing's for sure: the expense report for this mission is gonna make heads spin. Welcome to Helldivers 2, Xbox players.
