Mechs are here! Helldivers 2 players liberate Tien Kwan blisteringly fast to get their hands on the EXO-45 Patriot Exosuit

A propaganda poster of a giant mech from Helldivers 2, stood powerfully among a stark orange-and-black background.
(Image credit: Arrowhead Games.)

The latest Helldivers 2 major order is complete—and they weren't kidding, Tien Kwan was really churning out those suckers before it got invaded.

Turns out these mechs were ready to go a little while back. The moment players finished liberating Tien Kwan from the Automaton menace, the EXO-45 Patriot Exosuit became available to unlock in the game. It costs a whopping 20,000 requisition slips, but I reckon that's a small price to pay for freedom (and mechs). It also requires level 25, so our cadets will be waiting a little while longer.

Like heavy-hitting stratagems such as the Orbital Laser, the EXO-45 Patriot Exosuit appears to only have a couple of charges and a cooldown of 600 seconds, which is 10 minutes of waiting before your second redeployment. That means you'll have to be careful where you deploy this thing, since if it gets scrapped you'll be up Malevelon Creek without a paddle.

(Image credit: Arrowhead Games)

Our guides writer Sean Martin is a little more flush in the slips department than I am—so he was able to get in and test these suckers out right away. Here's a little footage (and some fun action shots) to tide you over while you grind one out.

Sean tells me that the chain-gun on this thing doesn't appear to be armour-penetrating, but the rockets still feel nice and powerful. Whether the mech'll make for a good anti-tank option to deal with the hordes of heavily-armoured bile titans remains to be seen, though Sean says he got scrapped by one in short order—so you might want to still take them out at a distance. 

I'm just impressed at how dang fast Tien Kwan was liberated. By my estimates, the planet was unlocked at around 2 PM GMT yesterday—and it was liberated at around 3:50 PM GMT today. That's a turnaround of nearly 24 hours on-the-dot, and considering these major orders are meant to last a few days? Divers were really excited by the news.

So excited they may have crashed the servers. At the time of writing, I can't get back onto my Super Destroyer—and the official Discord is reacting appropriately:

(Image credit: Helldivers 2 Official Discord)

Given the extensive amount of work Arrowhead Games has done on its servers, though, I'm sure things'll calm down in time once everyone gets the first few missile salvos out of their system. 

The way this was handled kinda rules—I'd half-expected Tien Kwan's liberation to prompt an update later in the week, but Arrowhead has given the community basically-instant gratification for its hard work. Automatons beware: Full-metal democracy is here.

Harvey Randall
Staff Writer

Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.

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