Helldivers 2 boss says players unlocked mechs "4x faster than we thought," and are now calling in so many EXO-45s that the servers are struggling again

Helldivers 2 intro screaming
(Image credit: Arrowhead Game Studios)

Man, y'all really like mechs. The long-awaited Helldivers 2 mechs hit the game earlier today following the liberation of planet Tien Kwan, and it seems the community's enthusiasm has outpaced developer expectations and server limitations once again. 

In a tweet, Helldivers 2 boss Johan Pilestedt revealed that players cleared Tien Kwan and unlocked mechs "4x faster than we thought." It only took about a day to get the factory planet liberated, so I'm assuming the devs at Arrowhead were expecting players to unlock the EXO-45s sometime this weekend. Hell hath no fury like divers with a Mighty Need for big robots. 

"With the successful push from the community to take Tien Kwan and the subsequent enabling of the mechs our servers have a hard time coping, the team is aware and doing what they can to mitigate," Pilestedt adds. "This intermittent issue is caused by too many trying to acquire the mech at the same time. Service will be restored eventually, but for now I ask for patience." 

There is something hilarious about hundreds of thousands of players ravenously grinding to unlock mechs, traces of their impending robot glory staring them tantalizingly in the face the whole time, only to finally reach the promised land and immediately mech out so hard that the servers buckle. It's especially funny given that the Helldivers 2 servers had generally stabilized in the past few weeks. All it took was one new Stratagem and an unquenchable thirst for big robots to bring the stampede right back. Godspeed, Helldivers.  

Helldivers 2 players scramble to figure out what's changed after dev admits "some things were stealth buffed and not put in the patch notes." 

Austin Wood

Austin freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree, and he's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize that his position as a senior writer is just a cover up for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a focus on news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.