Helldivers 2 community's ambitious plan to liberate 5 planets in 3 days in jeopardy as galactic war trackers catastrophically fail—but don't worry, Joel is on it

After last week's race to gas Terminid planets with super pesticide, I thought for sure Arrowhead would give the Helldivers 2 community a break. Then yesterday, a new major order came in: liberate a total of five planets in just three days—a daunting challenge, but not one that would be out of reach for the Super Earth fighting force that has exceeded Arrowhead's expectations at every turn.

As expected, the helldivers showed up. The major order only calls for the liberation of two planets, Fori Prime and Zagon Prime, but to get to them, players need to liberate at least three other planets first. The most organized players have taken on the roles of generals drawing up elaborate battle plans and rallying forces to focus their efforts and ignore unnecessary planets. It was working: In just over 24 hours, Estanu was liberated, opening a path to Fori Prime. With two days left to check off Fori and make a break for Zagon, success seemed entirely possible.

But earlier today, the war effort hit a major snag—a catastrophic failure of galactic war tracking within Helldivers 2. Missions can be completed, but right now they aren't counting for anything. All liberation has ceased, and with little time remaining, the Terminids are gaining back ground with no resistance.

The good news is Arrowhead game master Joel is aware of the problem, and issued an official communique to all helldivers assuring tracking will be restored as soon as possible. "We're aware of an issue with the Galactic War not tracking your effective spread of Liberty properly," Joel wrote. "We are investigating this urgently and will keep you posted as soon as we understand the issue and have a fix to communicate to you."

Battle Plan Regarding Major Orders from r/Helldivers

Hopefully, that fix will come with some sort of extension or liberation buff to help make up for lost time. Divers have really put their backs into coordinating forces this time around and it'd be a shame to see that sweat wasted.

While I'm comfortable assuming this isn't an intentional goosing of numbers by Joel, you do have to wonder if this stakes-raising roadblock isn't too convenient. It wouldn't be the only conspiracy levied against Arrowhead as of late. Players are still spotting flying bugs that don't officially exist, and more recently, blue lasers that could signal the arrival of a third faction.

Stepping outside the Helldivers fiction, Arrowhead is also tracking an increase in crash reports after today's patch aimed at fixing friend requests, mech bugs, and meteor showers.

"Our team is deep down in the trenches digging into the issue as we speak," wrote community rep Twinbeard on the HD2 Discord server. "We are on alert ready to update on any changes here."

The latest Helldivers 2 major order is set to end on Friday, March 22. What comes next? The very edge of Terminid territory, it would seem.