Helldivers 2 director reveals there’s a “lot more coming” for The Illuminate, and more

Helldivers 2 had an incredible first year, and Arrowhead recently celebrated the game’s one year anniversary with a big update plus the release of the Servants of Freedom Warbond. Now that the HD2 one year anniversary has come and gone, fans are looking ahead to the future. While Arrowhead wish to remain tight-lipped, the Helldivers 2 game director has teased there’s a “lot more coming” for The Illuminate, while also hinting at other additions.

Helldivers 2 game director teases more Illuminate

Helldivers 2 game director, Mikael Eriksson, recently conducted an interview with Polygon. During this interview, the director discussed Arrowhead’s initial expectations for how well HD2 would succeed, and they also discussed challenges Arrowhead encountered and had to overcome during its first year.

While it’s interesting to hear the developer’s reflect on the recent past, they also very slightly hinted at aspects for the future. Discussing plans for a “super epic” 5.0 release well into the future, Erikkson briefly hinted at more developments concerning the Illuminate.

In the interview, Polygon noted that the Illuminate faction is smaller compared to bugs and bots. In acknowledging this, Errikson said, “The Illuminate are more advanced than they might seem, and they have a long history in the Helldivers universe. There’ll be a lot more coming with the Illuminate, and their intentions will become gradually more clear as the story progresses”.

In addition, while bots are inspired by Terminator and bugs influenced by Starship Troopers, Errikson regarded the Illumiate as a mishmash of “alien invasion fantasy” meets “zombie horde experience”.

While the Illuminate will be a key story in 2025, fans needn’t threat about bots and bugs being forgotten as more content is arriving for them, too. One of the highlights with the Illuminate’s arrival was urban maps where players had to fight through city streets as opposed to desert landscapes.

When asked if Helldivers 2 will add similar urban maps for bots and bugs, Errikson teased, “Keep playing and you’ll find out”. The game director also elaborated, “The Helldivers are expanding in all directions, into bug and Automaton territories [therefore] It makes total sense there should be settlements there”.

Lastly, in the same interview, Errikson was asked if Arrowhead have any “plans to introduce in-game ways for players to give battle orders or set up a plan of action for an invasion”.Although unable to disclose what’s currently being developed, Errikson said Arrowhead do have plans to improve in-game communication “to give players the ability to group up and form plans and so forth”.

For more Helldivers 2, a leak has uncovered a melee weapon seemingly from Warhammer 40K. Make sure to check out our guide to the best warbonds ranked, along with the best stratagems and best throwables. We also have a guide to the best weapons, and, if you’re coming back to HD2 for the first time in a long while, we have a bunch of tips and tricks to help you get reaccustomed to the battlefield.