If Helldivers 2 players want mechs, they need to liberate a planet riddled with Automatons first

rockpapershotgun.com:

Developers Arrowhead said that Helldivers 2's mechs were "ready for deployment" a couple of days ago, but what they didn't tell us was how to unlock them. And in what I think is a rather refreshing live service twist, it's up to us honourable Helldivers to liberate the planet of Tien Kwan if we want those sweet, sweet mechs. Get me in there, chief.

Posting a call to arms on their Xwitter, Arrowhead say that the mech's production factories are under attack on Tien Kwan. Head in-game and there's a new Major Order (a quest equivalent) that tells every Helldiver to drop whatever else they were doing and turn their attention to the main task at hand: destroy the Automatons, free the damn mechs. And in a stroke of cruel genius, the Major Order suggests that if the community fails to liberate the planet before it expires (roughly, March 10) then the mech release might be delayed.

As for how the liberation actually works, players who successfully complete missions on Tien Kwan will nudge the liberation bar up by a minute percentage. But of course, with hundreds of thousands of players all banding together, that percentage bar can grow remarkably fast. It's a genuinely incredible thing sitting at the mission board and watching those bars rise in real time.

Despite Tien Kwan's continuing imprisonment, players have found mechs out in the wild. Redditor Ameer589 posted a clip of them stumbling into a rideable hunk of steel and rockets while collecting some Super Credits (in-game currency).

Players have found random mechs in Helldivers 2 before - the game's human game master Joel is clearly having fun being a tease. It speaks to a more playful approach to live-servicing than you'll find in many games of the same ilk. Rather than the march of time adding seasonal expansions, Helldivers can seemingly change at any moment. Arrowhead are the puppeteers and we're the armoured dolls in their little game. I think it's great that the pacing of new stuff is represented as being in the