Video Games

The Automatons are back in Helldivers 2 and want to know where Karl is

Of course the heartless machines didn’t ask how Karl is

Marco Wutz

Arrowhead

The Helldivers’ triumph over the Automaton menace was short-lived: As predicted, the robots merely lulled the forces of Super Earth into a false sense of security and waited to strike back once troops had been redeployed to the Terminid front. In a merciless overnight action, they managed to overrun Cyberstan and the area around it, pushing deep into human territory.

Gameplay-wise, this brought players of Helldivers 2 a new type of defense mission, in which they need to mount an epic last stand. Unfortunately, things aren’t going very well so far and the push from the galactic edge inwards continues. Only time will tell what the Automatons will do now that the homeworld of their creators, the Cyborgs, is under their control. Nothing good for Super Earth, one might imagine.

As Helldivers are desperately trying to out together a defensive line, Super Earth’s comms were seemingly hacked by the Automatons – earlier today, the Helldivers 2 account on X posted the following message (which has been deleted by the nearest democracy officer in the meantime): “:// 0101011101001000010001010101001001000101001000000100100101010011001000000100101101000001010100100100110000111111”

Translated, this means: “Where is Karl?”

Of course, this never officially happened, according to the Ministry of Truth.

Regardless of whether it happened or not, it’s a baffling thing for the Automatons to do – why would they ask after someone named Karl upon penetrating Super Earth’s communications? Naturally, speculations among the community are running rampant. 

Are they asking for Karl Marx, originator of the socialist philosophy? Are they asking for Karl, the mysterious dwarf from Deep Rock Galactic, another successful Swedish co-op game? Was a guy named Karl responsible for their creation and they can’t find him on Cyberstan?

Well, it’s nothing a true Helldiver needs to concern themselves with – the Ministry of Truth will figure it out. Make sure to check out the latest Helldivers 2 patch notes to be prepared for the fights to come.

Published
Marco Wutz

MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg