Helldivers 2 Dev Says Farmers Are Okay, They’re Not Hurting the War Effort — but They're Not Helping, Either

ign.com:

After the Helldivers 2 community had rounded on farmers for negatively impacting the game’s galaxy-wide war against alien bugs and bots, developer Arrowhead has clarified their traitorous actions are in fact harmless.

On the Helldivers Discord, Arrowhead staff member Evil-Bosse had said players who leave operations halfway through count as a loss for Super Earth, and thus negatively impact that planet’s “liberation” status. In Helldivers 2, players work to complete operations on planets, which in turn contribute positively to the grind to control sectors of the galaxy.

This was important because farmers, that is, players who play quickfire missions to efficiently farm for resources then reset the operation before it’s complete to rinse and repeat, were being criticized for putting Super Earth’s battle to supremacy under threat.

But Arrowhead has now clarified that leaving an operation before it’s complete has no impact either way. “I can confirm that abandoning an operation does not progress the enemy's percentage, so people who leave operations do not negatively affect a planet,” AHGS_Misty said in a post on Reddit. “Unfortunately Evil-Bosse got it wrong, but we all make mistakes!”

Evil-Bosse followed this up with a comment of their own: “Can confirm, I was accidentally spreading false information, you have my humble apologies.”

With this in mind, Helldivers 2 farmers can continue to efficiently hunt for resources guilt free, but with the knowledge that while they're not actively harming the war effort, they're not helping either. This comes just as Helldivers 2’s meta narrative hots up, with players encounter surprising twists and turns that impact gameplay. Only this week, players found they were locked out of playing on the much-loved Malevelon Creek planet, dubbed ‘Space Vietnam’ by the community, after it fell to the Automatons. Malevelon Creek suffered a ‘Planet Lost’ retreat order, making it inaccessible. Thankfully, this was short-lived, as it is now playable