Some Helldivers 2 Players Are Threatening to Teamkill Anyone Who Wears the New Malevelon Creek Cape — but the Community Is Fighting Back

ign.com:

This week, Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead released a new cape, free to all players, to mark what it’s called 'Malevelon Creek Memorial Day.' Now, a subset of the game’s community is threatening to teamkill players who wear it, seemingly because they don’t like the focus on Malevelon Creek itself.

First, some background: on April 1, Arrowhead delivered a new Major Order to Helldivers 2 players giving them a 24-hour window to finally take back Malevelon Creek, the Automaton map dubbed ‘Space Vietnam’ by fans. The planet was liberated in only about five hours.

Then, on April 2, Arrowhead launched a new Major Order to fend off the Automaton counterattack. This includes two new and terrifying Automaton enemies, dropped into the game without fanfare by Arrowhead for players to discover.

A day later, Arrowhead released the cape, called Fallen Hero’s Vengeance, alongside an in-universe statement: "By Presidential Decree, the President of Super Earth has officially recognized this day as Malevelon Creek Memorial Day. This week, in remembrance, all Helldivers will be issued a special commemorative cape, so they may carry the memory of their fallen companions into battle."

That, you would think, would be that, but some Helldivers 2 have taken to social media, the game’s subreddit and Discord to issue a kill-on-sight order for any player wearing the Fallen Hero’s Vengeance, and it appears to have something to do with apparent hate for 'Creekers.'

Malevelon Creek is undoubtedly Helldivers 2’s most high-profile map. It’s become the focal point for the ongoing meta narrative Arrowhead does such an impressive job of leading, with various community challenges to fight back against the dreaded Automatons issued since Helldivers 2's explosive launch. Malevelon Creek and its ‘Space Vietnam’ nickname have spawned a number of memes, mostly focused on the sheer number of player deaths that have occurred on the planet. The release of the new cape was seen by some as Arrowhead leaning into the