The battle for Cyberstan ended in a crushing defeat for the Helldivers. Now the machines are seeking revenge and setting their sights on the human homeland.
The large-scale offensive on Cyberstan in Helldivers 2 ended in a heavy defeat. Despite enormous efforts by the community, the forces of Super Earth lost the battle for the home world of the Automatons. And it seems that your failure will have serious consequences for the home of humanity.
An unexpected failure under difficult conditions
At the beginning of the month, the most ambitious event in the history of the co-op shooter began: Your mission was to attack the mighty Automaton cities on Cyberstan. The Helldiver High Command made the mission conditional on achieving victory before a set number of troops were exhausted.
Despite the provision of new equipment, this goal was not achieved: In the end, the new explosive hammer and the heavily armored Bastion tank did not provide enough firepower against the enemy lines. The losses on the attackers’ side were immense, with Helldivers recording a total of 200 million deaths.
The official response from Über Earth
An official statement on Helldivers 2’s social media channels condemns the enemies’ actions in strong terms:
The liberation of Cyberstan has failed. The insidious, subhuman betrayal of the cyborgs has returned to rob the citizens of Super Earth of peace once again. The threat of a socialist planet killer remains. This is a grotesque parody of justice.
Nevertheless, Operation “Valid Pretext” was not without benefit. The bold and tireless Helldiver offensive forced the monstrous cyborgs out of the shadows. Their tyrannical bastion was breached and their mega-factories were razed to the ground.
In doing so, we have severely wounded Cyberstan—a proven source of tyranny—and reduced its industrial capacity to ashes. If the Cyborgs insist on rejecting peace under controlled democracy, they will inherit nothing but a burning wasteland. […]
OPERATION VALID PRETEXT CONCLUDED
The peacekeeping Operation on Cyberstan has concluded.The liberation of Cyberstan has failed. The underhanded, subhuman treachery of the Cyborgs returned to once again steal peace from Super Earth’s citizens. The threat of a socialist… pic.twitter.com/4qrqAsC8Nw
— HELLDIVERS™ 2 (@helldivers2) February 21, 2026
The community celebrates the enemies
And how are players reacting to the failure of the major offensive? On platforms such as Reddit, fans are taking the heavy defeat with a great deal of humor. Some even celebrate the machines as heroic defenders of their homeland who successfully repelled the massive attack from above:
[OC] Bots immediately after the invasion of Cyberstan
by
u/pinglyadya in
Helldivers
cleaning up cyberstan stragglers
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u/Intellectual_Poultry in
Helldivers
[OC] Glory To The Collective! ERA!
by
u/Human_the_archivist in
Helldivers
Red alert on Über-Earth
The defeat on Cyberstan now has direct consequences for the further course of the Galactic War. The official statement embedded above explicitly warns the remaining troops of the enemy faction’s upcoming moves:
We must retreat and regroup to prepare for the inevitable, unjust counteroffensive of the surviving socialist threat.
It seems that the Helldivers are facing the next stage of escalation: the Automatons and Cyborgs sense their chance and will apparently use the current phase of weakness to their advantage. A direct attack on Super Earth, or at least on sectors controlled by humanity, is imminent. So you’d better prepare yourselves for the most intense defensive battles of your career so far!
