Following the battle against the Automatons over Cyberstan, another of Helldivers 2’s factions is getting some new additions later this week. The Illuminate – technologically advanced alien squids for the uninitiated – are set to have their ranks bolstered by fresh troops and will start to unleash exostorms you’ll be tasked with containing via new missions.

While this beefing up of the Illuminate assault is detailed in the notes for the Helldivers 2 patch which as gone live today, March 17th, the new additions won’t actually unlock until March 20th. So, you’ve got some time to prepare and pick out your best squid-squishing gear.

“Illuminate Appropriators have made themselves known–shielded, powerful, and arriving in Illuminate Fleets, as well as hordes of Fleshmobs and Voteless,” developers Arrowhead summarise. “But that’s not all. New planetary conditions have been detected, and the squids have commanded nature itself to work against us in the form of the Illuminate Exostorms with intense wind and lightning strikes. You will have to destroy their Exospires to calm the storm.”

In non-Helldivers 2 speak, there are some great big storms now buzzing around certain Illuminate-occupied planets, and the new missions see you tasked with taking out big purple towers built atop Illuminate ruins on the surfaces of these worlds in order to contain the bad weather. Standing in the way are some new enemies in the form of the Veracitor and the Gatekeeper – two types of Illuminate lumbering around in exosuits. One’s outfitted for melee and so has big gangly limbs, while the other’ll keep its distance and fire at you with its gun-arms. There’s also the Obtruder, a new variant of the pesky Watcher scout drone that’s weaker, but more weaponised and roams in larger groups.

All in all, it all looks like it’ll be a nice change from the long bot battle that’s been raging in the game since the Machinery of Oppression update arrived last month. The Illuminate ruins especially look like they’ll provide one of the more unique backdrops Arrowhead have added thus far to the firefights that planetary excursions in Helldivers 2 always devolve into. Plus, you can never have enough mechs on the battlefield, so the Illuminate now have that box ticked.

I may well dive in, especially since I can now fit the shooter on my PC without feeling like it’s taking up half of my storage space.