Helldivers 2’s Illuminate faction is finally here, alongside urban maps, vehicles, and more in Omens of Tyranny update

It’s taken the better part of the year, but Arrowhead Games has finally released the long-anticipated third enemy faction for Helldivers 2. That’s right, folks: the Illuminate forces are here as part of the Omens of Tyranny update, and they’re a menace.

We’ve been waiting for the Illuminate to make themselves known for quite a while now. Teasers have been coming in thick for months, and since the third faction is the last major piece of content from the original Helldivers that we hadn’t yet seen, there was a lot of excitement and mystery surrounding it. To that end, the Omens of Tyranny update’s sudden release shouldn’t necessarily come as a huge surprise. It launched as part of the ongoing TGA celebrations (which is appropriate, seeing how Helldivers 2 won the “Best Multiplayer Title” award), and you can go fight the Illuminate right this instant. Should you, though?

Take the fight to Illuminate forces in Helldivers 2: Omens of Tyranny

Following the annoyances of August’s Escalation of Freedom update, I was skeptical of the new Omens of Tyranny release for Helldivers 2. Quite simply, Arrowhead has a track record of successfully mucking about things that work, and though I was quite happy with the state of the game back in October, the road to getting there did make me suspicious of any huge revamps, releases, and changes.

With that in mind, things seem to be in order. Even though the return of the Illuminate is the biggest draw of this update, Omens of Tyranny is substantially larger than just that. As per the official blog post over on Steam, you can expect all of the following features in Helldivers 2‘s latest build:

• The Illuminate faction.
• Urban mission areas (!).
• The Fast Recon Vehicle for entire squads of Helldivers to drive, shoot, and generally enjoy using.

Great stuff, right? But wait, the good news doesn’t stop here because Omens of Tyranny is positively loaded with excellent balancing changes, too:

• Exploding barrels are far more potent.
• Helldivers are more difficult to set ablaze.
• Airburst Rocket Launcher now has an additional ammunition type: timer-based cluster rounds.
• LIFT-850 Jetpack is now far more useful, allowing users to aim and heal while they’re airborne.
• All Sentry Stratagems are now more durable and resistant to fire.
• All Exosuit Stratagems are now more durable.

Further, you can now rejoin your last match if the game crashes. Arrowhead has also delivered a whole host of bugfixes and other assorted balancing improvements as part of the update. There are just too many of those to be able to shove them into a sensible list in such a small article.

All in all, then, Helldivers 2‘s huge Omens of Tyranny update is an excellent showing. The availability of a new faction, multi-user vehicle, or the urban biome each would’ve been a huge upgrade to Helldivers 2‘s longevity on its own. With all three of these features included in one update, we’ve got a heck of a holiday season ahead of us.