It’s a dark day for the Helldivers 2 community. Despite the brave and noble efforts of Lady Liberty’s finest, players were unable to slay enough Automatons and Terminids — 1,000,000,000 of the former and 1,500,000,000 of the latter, respectively — to support the construction of a complete blockade around the Illuminate’s Meridian Singularity. As a result of the failed Major Order, enough Dark Energy reached the black hole to propel it into the planet Moradesh and cause the world’s violent destruction.
There’s no time for mourning what we’ve lost, as High Command has already given the Helldivers a new Major Order to defend planets Achernar Secundus, Fenrir III, Ursica XI, and Heeth from Terminid attack. If held for the next three and a half days, Super Earth’s top scientists can construct a Penrose Energy Siphon in their orbits that will significantly reduce the black hole’s accumulated Dark Energy.
But as that defensive effort begins, many Helldivers have discovered what seem to be hidden messages in the in-universe videos posted by developer Arrowhead Game Studios to alert players to Moradesh’s fall. This includes the “Destruction Imminent” video urging citizens and Helldivers to evacuate the planet, as well as the “Signal Lost” one that confirmed its obliteration. You can see some of what the community has found below:
Run the newest video through a spectrogram and you get… the horizon of a planet? from r/Helldivers
helldivers from r/Helldivers/comments/1jawqur/new_spectrogram_message_hidden_in_evacuation_alert
As you can see from the community investigations on the r/Helldivers subreddit, running the videos through a spectrogram reveals some hidden Morse code, along with a strange egg-shaped object, what appears to be an energy beam, and a distorted view of a planetary horizon. Notably, as pointed out by u/Possible_Monitor_215, a clearer view of the planet is visible in the corner of a frame of the “Signal Lost” video if you pause at just the right moment.
Efforts to translate the Morse code have so far been inconclusive, though code-crackers in the community are certainly giving it their all in this collaborative Google Doc. The leading theory is that “06EFBC” — a string of code translated from the Morse that can be interpreted as a hexadecimal color value — is referring to the world Rogue 5 on the southern edge of the galaxy; when the position of the color #06EFBC on a hue wheel is overlaid on top of Helldivers 2’s Galactic War map, it’s over the exact location of that planet.
This has many wondering if the Illuminate faction is planning to try to capture Rogue 5 and turn it into something of a headquarters, especially since a “wet planet” with “deep oceans” like that one seems like it’d be ideal for the squid-like aliens. Notably, the Illuminate actually attacked Rogue 5 earlier this month during an Automaton-focused Major Order, but were repelled by the Helldivers.
Also, many speculate that the planet in the images from the spectrogram and the “Signal Lost” freezeframe is Rogue 5, as that world’s light blue, almost slightly purple coloration is very similar to its own. Some also believe that it’s Squ’bai Shrine, the Illuminate home world from the First Galactic War that’s currently absent in Helldivers 2. It, too, shares a similar appearance.
Ultimately, it’s not clear what these secrets mean; some believe the Illuminate is planning on trying to bring Squ’bai Shrine through the Meridian Singularity itself to launch a massive invasion of Super Earth, while others anticipate the aliens will try to turn Rogue 5 into a staging ground for future assaults. One thing is for sure, though, and that’s that whatever the Illuminate is doing can’t be good.
For now, all the Helldivers can do is dutifully defend the aforementioned four planets from the Terminids so that we can effectively slow down and combat the Meridian black hole. If we fail, there may be nothing we can do to save Ivis — the next world in the Singularity’s path towards Super Earth. Gear up with your best anti-bug loadout and get to the frontlines, Helldivers.
Helldivers 2 stands tall as one of the best PC games and best PS5 games to play if you’re into co-op shooters, intense sci-fi action, goofy physics antics, and goofy satirical writing. It’s typically $40, though you can often get it for less if you shop around for discounts. Right now, the best one is CDKeys’ sale that shaves over $13 off the price, allowing you to get the bombastic title for well under $30.
