Helldivers 2 just got a Steam update literally entitled “gameplay_illuminates”, and players aren’t sure if it’s the real thing, or god-tier Arrowhead trolling

At this point, Helldivers 2 actually getting its long-rumored third faction – the first game’s Illuminate – feels like something that we’ve been chatting about on and off for years. However, there’s fresh hope now, in the form of a Steam depot update to the game that literally titled, er, “gameplay_illuminates”.

No, I’m not messing with you. It seems Arrowhead, for whatever reason, has gone for something as potentially literal as Democracy Space Station in its name for the thing it did to the game earlier today, naturally inciting speculation about the lads we all thought might rock up in the Galactic War back around the time Meridia got spaghettified and at a few points after that.

As spotted by keen-eyed Helldivers 2 subreddit user Dangerous-Return5937, according to SteamDB, Helldivers 2 got a depot update earlier today that’s literally dubbed “gameplay_illuminates”. There’s no more info to be gleaned about what this update actually means – whether it does herald the arrival of those Illuminates its title suggests, or when they might actually be deployed in-game.

Just the name, in a place that anyone with an internet connection can find it, meaning it’s not even technically a leak, depending on how you classify such things. Naturally, players are split on what to make of it. Those who want to believe are getting excited, while others are taking a bit of a wait and see approach, and some are just plain confused.

As some of the latter camp have pointed out, it seems strange that – if it is the Illuminate – Arrowhead would decide to give it such an obvious name. While it has attatched other recent updates to titles like “studio_playtest” and “gameplay_worlds”, it’s also done some updates under names like “mimosa”, “orion” and “wushu” that are a lot less likely to stoke potentially undue player speculation.

As one HD2 subreddit moderator puts it: “If anything, Arrowhead is kinda asking for it by giving the depot update that title.” Anyway, some folks are still convinced it’ll turn out to be the studio trolling them rather than making some kind of error. “Can’t wait for it being an update on the lighting in the gameplay and everyone getting bamboozled,” one wrote.

For now it seems sensible not to get too hyped up, given that even if this is about those Illuminates, there’s no guarantee it means they’re gonna be arriving properly in the immediate future, but definitely let us know what you think of this weirdness below!