Helldivers 2 servers are getting crushed under the onslaught of mechs

(Image credit: Arrowhead Games)

After a long stretch of teasing, mechs have finally arrived in Helldivers 2, providing players the opportunity to stomp around the battlefield in heavily-armored style. Unfortunately, with that good news comes a bit of bad: The arrival of the heavy-duty war machines has brought with it a renewed round of server errors.

"We are aware of an issue with players not being able to get into the game," an Arrowhead developer said earlier today on the Helldivers Discord. "This happened when the Combat Walkers became available. People rushed to get it and it overwhelmed our backend. We are working to fix it as soon as we can. We want you to enjoy the Mech as soon as possible. Thanks for your patience!"

Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt said the issue is "intermittent," and luck may still get you in the door: PC Gamer Helldiver-in-Chief Morgan Park is in the game at this very moment, and has been for some time now, because I guess he just gets to do that kind of thing on a Friday. I, however, have been stuck at a "failed to connect to server" message for the past 20 minutes.

(Honestly compels me to admit that Morgan is actually playing Helldivers 2 for a work thing, which you will likely be reading about soon.)

At this point there's no indication as to when servers will be back to normal. "Service will be restored eventually," Pilestedt tweeted, "but for now I ask for patience."

Hey everyone! With the successful push from the community to take Tien Kwan and the subsequent enabling of the mechs our servers have a hard time coping, the team is aware and doing what they can to mitigate. This intermittent issue is caused by too many trying to acquire the mech at the same time. Service will be restored eventually, but for now I ask for patience. I am so impressed by the combined power and dedication of the @helldivers2 community. You all are massive heroes liberating Tien Kwan 4x faster than we thought 🧐 — (Image credit: Johan Pilestedt (Twitter))

So far, just as they did when Helldivers 2 launched and ran face-first into a brick wall of server problems, players seem inclined to roll with it. There's some understandable impatience and frustration, but no real wailing and gnashing of teeth on display—although I get the feeling that this guy, who actually got into the game, came pretty close:

I found a mech. It didn't last long. from r/Helldivers

That may be the saddest sound I've heard all year.

A greater concern at this point seems to be the failure of mission rewards to register on the completion of missions, including from the most recent major order, which led up to the mech rollout. This too is apparently part of the backend overload: A Helldivers 2 developer on Discord said the problem "is a visual bug due to the backend part of the server (basically player loot/data) being overworked," and that everyone will get their rewards and samples eventually.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.