Helldivers 2 players celebrate victory after scaring new Illuminate invaders out of the galaxy, only for the creepy squid aliens to come running back

For a few blissful hours, Helldivers 2 players were proud of themselves. Nearly 120,000 of them joined forces to banish the slimy Illuminate aliens that arrived with the third-person shooter's new Omens of Tyranny update, but then, uh, the Illuminate invaded. Again. 

"THEY'RE BACK," screams a Reddit post with 10,000 panicked upvotes. At the time, the Illuminate were crawling all over the dusky planet Genesis Prime. Players gritted their teeth and began to defend, but it wasn't enough. 

"We failed on Genesis Prime," one recent Reddit comment says. "We just failed on Mog, too. [The Illuminate] don't operate like the other factions; they use guerilla tactics to hit-and-run and don't hold territory. At least for now, their MO is to collect our citizens and then leave."

It's as serious as it sounds. But there's strength in numbers, and players should take comfort in the fact that Helldivers 2 stresses in a major order that the Illuminate's "numbers are limited. This attack is an opportunity to complete the eradication of this xenophobic threat, securing the galaxy once more." In any case, most players are just happy to have another opportunity to shoot the squid-headed aliens in the eyeballs. 

"The Battle for [initial Illuminate target] Calypso was the best and most unique gaming experience of my life," says one popular Reddit post. "As the evening rolled around, I opened Reddit to see Calypso's defense progress — it's close. It's VERY CLOSE."

"120,000 people down there, all doing the same thing, and we were just losing by the time 9PM hit," the poster continues. "I had to be up for work at 6AM the next morning, but I thought, 'Screw it, we dive.'" 

After an eventful year, Helldivers 2 devs hope "it will be less of a bumpy road when it comes to release accuracy" - but Arrowhead is still "prepared to take risks."