Automaton Factory Striders have prompted a bold new tactic from players in Helldivers 2

The Automatons are now dispersing Factory Striders among their standard forces in Helldivers 2, forcing players to stick to a specific tactic so they stand a chance of beating them.

Until this week, the AT-AT-like Factory Striders on Automaton planets were a rare sight. They’d appear now and then, be destroyed or kill a Helldiver, and never be seen again. Now, the Automatons are sending them into missions as reinforcements, and Helldivers are actively taking on missions to hunt them down. It’s caused the community to pull together and inadvertently develop a solid tactic that seems to work incredibly well when employed against them.

When Helldivers 2 players see an Automaton Factory Strider, they throw everything and the kitchen sink at it

It seems as though the entire Helldivers 2 community is using the same tactic when it comes to downing Automaton Factory Striders, probably because it works so well: throw your biggest Stratagems at them and run. While that might not sound incredibly groundbreaking, it is for this community because it’s forcing players to hold onto their Stratagems until they see the lights from a Factory Strider’s eyes.

It’s impossible to browse the game’s Subreddit today without seeing players talk about this. User CorsariousAbonai made a big post about how their team all naturally started saving Stratagems after meeting Striders in every mission they played. User Luke-Likesheet is responsible for the best meme of the tactic, though, and the video below should give you some idea of why this enemy has become such a topic of conversation.

I think it’s brilliant that the community has adapted so well to this new enemy because it really does feel like an onslaught of AT-ATs right out of Star Wars while you’re playing. I know I’ve started tweaking my loadout to back more explosive heat, and I’m seeing other Helldivers do the same. There’s something beautiful about seeing so many beacons light up the sky as soon as two or three of these massive walkers drop.

The Automaton Factory Striders truly are the first enemy that it’s been beneficial to simply throw beacons at and run away until it falls. While it’s great that the community has adapted to fighting them so well, it’s also a little terrifying that we’re already at the point where we just chuck the biggest bombs we have and see what happens.

There’s no telling what developer Arrowhead Game Studios could throw at us next. The Illuminate faction‘s been lurking as numbers on a screen for ages, but there’s every chance we could get something else big around the corner. After all, we haven’t seen the biggest bugs Super Earth has ever had to contend with in Helldivers 2 just yet.