Tonally mercurial co-op shooter Helldivers 2 is boosting its level cap, again, in another hint that something big is brewing in the blackness of its endlessly war-torn galaxy. Following a previous increase from 50 to 150, developers Arrowhead are bumping the cap to level 300 in an upcoming patch, with any XP that you would have gained since hitting the previous limit set to apply retroactively. I wonder if any dive-happy souls out there have banked enough well-done points to instantly jump from 150 to 300 the moment they log in? No judgement here. Questions, maybe, but not judgement.

The announcement post doesn’t specific a date or patch number for when the higher cap takes effect, though the announcement itself comes just a day after this curious teaser video, showing a teddy bear in Helldiver garb having a rather nasty time after floating into some kind of open spacetime wound. Which means – that’s right – it’s time to pointlessly speculate!

Given the lack of draw to bigger level numbers in themselves – the patch also includes new high-level ranks and titles, but these are basically just for showing off – it does make sense that a major content update is in the works. Activities, in other words, to help fill out that higher cap, while a re-opened XP tap provides positive reinforcement to drive players to those fresh fights in turn.

Whatever the teaser is for, it’s also evidently important enough to warrant an expensive-looking short video, directed with more gravitas than Helldivers typically bothers with. Perhaps, those Warhammer 40K crossover plans don’t end at Guardsmen uniforms and Meltaguns. The cosmic painhole that rips apart the bear has the look, feel, and smell of a Warp rift: tears in 40K’s reality through which the Chaos gods and their demonic mates reach through to realspace.

Could Helldivers 2 have you not simply cosplaying as the Imperium of Man, but battling its enemies? To me that’s less believable than just introducing, say, a legally distinct faction of reality-invading monsters, but then Apex Legends did let you play as Cyberpunk Edgerunner characters the other day, so stupider brand awareness exercises have happened. We should find out either way on August 12th, the date dangled at the end of the teaser.

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