Less than 24 hours after developer Arrowhead Game Studios issued a Major Order to Helldivers 2 players to collect 70 million samples from missions over several days, it pulled the directive because hackers were making light work of it and highlighting a glaring flaw in the game’s anti-cheat protection.
Players logging in to check on the current Major Order over the weekend are now instead being greeted by an in-game dispatch message that hints at what happened but leaves you with no overarching goal to complete outside of your Personal Order. While hacking samples is nothing new for Helldivers 2, some players believe the hackers did this as a way to protest the changes made in the recent Escalation of Freedom update.
Counterfeit Samples cost Helldivers their fish
Most Helldivers 2 players realize that this Major Order was being hacked, and that’s why it was pulled early. Almost everyone on the game’s subreddit is discussing how it’s funny and how it will impact the game in the future. User Twad_feu says, “Gotta love an anti-cheat that work right? It apparently doesn’t even have a check to stop glaringly obvious moves like this? I mean, if the max mission sample is 10.. maybe a line of code should raise a flag when it’s 23000?”
When you launch Helldivers 2 now, the in-game dispatch that greets you is a poor follow-up to what came before. Arrowhead Game Studios had given us an ominous message about a Terminid spore cloud known as The Gloom, which causes Superdestroyers to cease all contact if they enter. The idea behind collecting 70 million samples was to ascertain what this cloud really is.
The new message, which you can read in the image above, addresses how some players delivered what’s being called “Counterfeit Samples,” and that those who have been caught have had their fish executed. Hinting at the fact that some players simply hacked them into the game. It adds that The Gloom has now mysteriously stopped spreading, so it doesn’t matter that we deliver enough real Samples anymore, which feels like a loss for the game’s lore. Even dedicated Helldivers 2 social accounts can’t muster much enthusiasm about the news.
As I’ve mentioned, hackers have been able to glitch in Samples to Helldivers 2 since its initial launch in February 2024. The bigger issue, as user No_Shock_5644 hints, is that we’ll probably never see this type of Major Order again. “So we’ll probably never see major orders with samples again because of these clowns that like to ruin things for everyone.”
The real question is why this was a Major Order in the first place if the developer has known about it since launch. User Keinulive posted a pretty damning comment it’s hard not to get behind, “Remember guys, this cheat has existed since day 1, it’s hilarious how they haven’t found a solution to it, countless people complained that hackers managed to trivialize the farming during its first week so AH KNOWS about this bullshit.”
I have to say, I love the idea that user lo0ilo0ilo0i put forward. “AH just baiting to pinpoint the cheaters, right? Right?!” Making this Major Order a hacker trap and subsequently removing hackers would be a great way to regain some faith with the community as part of the developer’s 60-day balance plan.