No no, it's not like that! You see, by killing these Automatons, we're putting our fellow tortured humans out of their misery, freeing them from their fascist Automaton cage!
Most convincing argument for that the automatrons are reinstated left over brains. Are that a clean headshot makes them go limb like humans. There's never a "chicken without a head" moment or nothing, just dead.
im guessing its more like they are copying brains, then putting them in similar bodies so their minds don't fracture, hence why the bigger bots are just the normal base bots but just wearing exo-suit things and why they die on headshots
Another fun weird fact, if you carry an explosive barrel, and get in their faces, they wont shoot you, as if they are afraid of setting off the explosive you are carrying. They WILL however try to sneak up behind you and punch you in the head to force you to drop the thing before then trying to shoot you xD
@@NoName-ym5zj pretty hilarious to know that the rocket users are full stop nuts, but then again that is usually a pretty common running gag with demolition based characters lol
@@Vuntermonkey in my capitalist country as in many others, military service is mandatory. Like South Korea that is colonized by super earth. Or they can make your middle class economic life sucks and pay for your education if you serve as it is in super earth.
My theory is that the automatons are still cyborgs, maybe more metal than flesh and mass produced, but still cyborgs. The theory is that super earth is pushing propaganda about the automatons saying that these are fully robot to create that “the enemy isn’t human so you shouldn’t fret killing them” effect you see throughout the history of warfare.
I definitely think the first gen of Automatons were stripped down Cyborgs. The propaganda also covers Super Earth's ass for committing such atrocities and the fact that further production of them are made using harvested citizens.
I think they are fully robbots, a solution for cyborg infertility. But fully sentient... well, controlled by fully sentient GAI. That would explain why they talk as if they were sentient, but with poor coordination. Think as if the actual cyborgs were playing a hero RTS, using a bunch of less powerful GAI. It's because they learn with the sheer genocide from the last war.
After 100 years of them not being seen as a threat to the public, the dehumanization (that ministry of truth let go of during the peace.) wore off on the population. Hence the 'they're heartless monsters' angle of their efforts now. Automaton is a deliberate word choice, because it implies there's nothing organic/alive there at all.
Idk if this is what it looked like, but i swear more than once ive shot down a whole troop of automatons, save for one lesser unit, only to have it seem to look around, realize it was the only remaining unit, then turn and "run" (walk) away in fear.
When you fight the bugs, you get covered in a greenish goo, when you fight robots, you get covered in red blood, and its not from you…. I thought it was a glitch, but now…
I did a trivial bot mission the other day and never took any damage due to shield backpack. Yet by the end I was drenched in blood Wasn't sure if it was intentional or a bug in programming but this could explain it
The Helldivers twitter, a few years ago, sent a bunch of binary encrypted messages that were written by the cyborgs. One of them had this message: "Our children, the automaton will not suffer as we have under the oppression of Super Earth!" This seems to imply that automatons were created by the cyborgs. IMO, automatons are fully mechanical, though certainly they aren't mindless unfeeling machines, given all the evidence. I think they're AI that's highly advanced and self-aware. My theory for why they harvest human bodies is that the "skull-like" headpiece that automatons have are literal human skulls that they use in order to imitate/honor the appearance of their creators the cyborgs.
Yes, this is exactly my thoughts. Except I don't think they wear skulls. When you get a good look at them, especially compared to the skulls the Hulk is decorated with, they feel more like metal parts made to look like human skulls. I think they collect the bodies, most of which you will find headless, for things like decorating Hulks to drive intimidation. But aboslutely they are A.I. created by the cyborgs, made in the image of the cyborgs, and thus imiate the human side of the cyborgs.
my head canon (that has loose lore connection but it's more of a trust me bro) but I think the automatons are the descendants of the cyborgs that fled west on the galactic map after the first war but because there's likely less resources out there they went as mechanical as they could pretty much avoiding the food strain while growing in numbers eventually leading to them coming back in an attempt to free cyberstan from super earth oppression or they could just be a contingency A.I sent out by cyberstan near the end of the war in an attempt to salvage what they can and it's coming back to free cyberstan after preparing for the last 100 years in deep space both make sense right now given the context clues
That's definitely a possibility! It's something I've considered, I just felt what little info we have per Super Earth messaging pointed me more in this direction.
@@Jo.Plays.Games. And maybe the cybertification of them (Becoming more metal than flesh) its just basically a symbolic way of materialistic communism, as well as trying to be perfected super soldiers (Ubersmench as the Soviet Union did the same of trying to achieve enchanced humans in experiments) that have a "Hivemind" system between becoming the perfect and ideal fusion between the ideal communist (collectivism) and the perfect enchanced human (the ideal man of the revolution) to bring down revolution.
I'm pretty sure it's also implied in the lore that the bomb that went off on Earth, was a false flag. And in actuality the cyborgs never wanted to even fight. Remember folks we're playing as the bad guys.
If I remember correctly, Automatons don't hold Cyberstan at the moment, but in fact, as it's suspected by some players from what appears in the game and what developers post on X, are heading TOWARDS it. IMO Automatons are either radical Cyborgs that left to the fringe of the galaxy before Super Earth's victory, or they are some sort of Cyborgs' contingency plan, since in one message Cyborgs call them their "children". Fun fact, black logo of Automatons on round white background is reminiscent to what symbol of National Bolshevism looks like ,but with star and cog instead of hammer and sickle (I won't mention other "national" ideology with similar symbolism, because of obvious reasons).
My theory is that Automans ARE indeed the cyborgs from Cyberstan modified by Super Earth to be their robotic slaves, BUT are now controlled by the Illuminate to fight against the Super Earth.
Automatons are the Cyborg's children. Don't know whether they are AIs or transmachines from being born a Homosapien, but their behaviour makes sense if they're AIs. Like AIs do fear death ya'll.
@@Jo.Plays.Games.some bodies still have their heads, though. Even the impaled Helldiver heads are still inside their helmets, the helmets are not empty. If the bots use human brains, why not use these? Especially the Helldivers’ brains with all their combat abilities?
@@zaniatnikwhat's to say they didn't try, maybe helldiver brains are too loyal to be forced to kill other divers. Or maybe the few they use are in the more heavy armored units like devestators and hulks. Those things fight like people on the higher difficulties.
I'll admit, I have the hardest time making out a lot of their speech. But I do 100% hear them say "Plutarch scum!" Which is what the Cyborgs said in HD1.
I think Super Earth is either controlling the automatons and using them as an army to fight as a way to justify their hyper-militant culture and massive military spending, or they were making them to guard the bug farms (since the terminids seem to keep breaking out and killing their organic people), but someone took control of them and turned them against super earth (Maybe a Cyberstanian?). The second one is less likely since I don’t think they care about their own citizens much. And also there’s a tv commercial on the ship where it says if you’re too old to work, you can sign up to donate your body to “Bio-repurposer vats, which…Wonder what they could do with those….
Super Earth propaganda you can catch on the ship TV seems to reference the Automatons being a workforce they've created. "They should have been happy with what they had."
Corrosion, in theory. But tbh I have the same question. But if there was a human brain in those noggins, that's extremely soft tissue that'd be very susceptible to something like that....
Many automaton units are definitely cyborgs. There is no design reason for a robot to have the CPU a vulnerable top mounted area, or only two enhanced eyes, unless ...
@@Jo.Plays.Games. I think they want to recover their Cyborg comrades or something, Cyberstan is so far away from where the automaton front broke out so Idk.
In Helldivers 1 we found out after reaching their home planet that automatons are made by older defected Helldivers. They wanted to create machines using dead helldivers, but the federation wouldn’t allow it so they left to begin making their own army and now here we are. 😏
Cyborgs are in HD1, Automotons are in HD2. Cyborgs created Automatons. In HD2 we can literally watch them come out of fabricators where they are created. 100% machines.
Ur on to something, but the coating on the tubing for supposed fluids being black on the bigger things in prbly just that the bigger things can handle the added weight of extra armor coating.
Ive seen multiple people say that they heard the automatons say " I dont wanna hurt anybody, they are making me hurt you" and other li es that sound like they are being forced to kill
The automatons were talking about 'the reclamation' and then came back and took a bunch of systems but cyberstan was specifically called out They're absolutely cyborg aligned They were made by the cyborgs, they use human brains to some capacity, they have actual malice, conversations, camaraderie, they flinch when shot at, berserkers scream in what sounds like pain instead of berserk rage...
Whether they bots are fully mechanical, or some kind of Frankenstein cyborg horror, it matters not, they will be destroyed. They are a source of high grade alloys and for every one of these mechanical monsters that falls only fuels our war effort against them. For Super Earth!
they are literally chanting "Heart Steel, We Kill, Iron Will On to War (x2), Cyber Stan (sometimes "Diver Scum"), can't keep her down, Legion go(sometimes "We Count Down" or "Get back up"), until Dawn (sometimes "on to war")"
"A difference of opinion on the ratio of flesh to motherboard the human body should contain isn't exactly grounds for warfare" [ LAUGHS IN TOTAL ANNIHILATION ]
So I just realized something potentially disturbing. The Helldivers are all individuals. So how then do they gain knowledge and experience every-time a new one dies and get's replaced? The game encourages you replay the tutorial again and I noticed some interesting details. The start up screen acts like a computer rebooting and suddenly you gain consciousness. Already prepped for training and encouragement from "fellow" Helldivers. I think the helmet is a dead giveaway for hints of brainwashing (there's some kind of port behind the helmet Matrix style). Each person is brainwashed and the live feed is then fed to the next thawed one. The "player" is not aware of this because they transitioned to a new body so quickly. Each HellDiver doesn't think individually. They all share the same knowledge compounding.
the Dehumanization of an enemy is an popular tactic in warfare, make the general public see the enemy as monsters and you get alot more support for the wareffort and less angry looks when you are commiting warcrimes/etc. (for potential commenters i will not go into real world situations) and with how many helldivers are lost, yeah....
Had one just hang out with me on a solo mission. Didn't attack at all, just ran up and stared at me. Followed me all the way around the map as I killed his buddies. All the way to extract and then the pelican pilot shot him.
That lowkey makes Automatons even more evil. They're taking civilian brains and likely putting them into the dogshit units like raiders and berserkers that have terrible armor and melee weapons. The original Automatons are probably piloting the hulks and devastators.
There's also a detail that i find weird, if you survived long enough, after a mision, you are covered in Tyranid blood but when this happens in an automaton mission, you are covered in blood. Idk if it's your blood or the blood of automatons
Well this aged well. We turned the bots into so much scrap metal and they never got anywhere near Cyberstan. or Super Earth. Wonder what the GM has in store for that. A return of the Cyborgs?
ADDENDUM: Apparently I spoke too damn soon. The bots are back with a vengeance and have occupied the sector of space Cyberstan is in, among others. We had like what, three days with no bots?
...didn't realize Cyberstan was present in the HD2 galactic map. The Automatons have been seemingly completely wiped out with this last major order but if the Cyborgs' home planet is still around, we'll see if they stay down...
@@Jo.Plays.Games. Yeah they didn't stay down for very long did they lol. Very Not Great that they immediately took over Cyberstan. I sense a lot of Automaton-focused Major Orders in the future...
Just started, and noticed the bodies. Reminded me of MGR, the room where Sundowner shows off the brains. Figured the skull casing also comes equipped with some of program that causes the organic brain to run simulations and receive direct messaging. Berserkers on the other hand are the rejects, not wholly indoctrinated and being the type of person who is the fight in fight or flight when in unfamiliar circumstances. As they get more and more damaged, the pain signals they receive causes their brains to release adrenaline, the adrenaline dulls sensation of the programming, and they come to the horrific panicking realization, they're trapped against their will and must scream. As to why they feel pain, take a look at the neurological defect of those who cannot feel pain, they tend not to notice injuries that require medical intervention, tending not to live long. Pain lets you know you're in danger. In the automatons, the human brain detects the pain, the machine parts process and then respond. I've downed the jump pack troopers from 100+ meters with the marksman rifle by shooting their packs, they often time do not react or face the wrong direction before exploding.
another fun fact is that before launch there was a bunch of easter eggs in binary. that basically stated that the automatons are legitimately the cyborgs children. and that knowing of their defeat they sent them out of the galaxy saying that they would be free of super earth.
There was an ARG encrypted message game from helldivers 1, years ago, that when it was finally decrypted, was basically a declaration of independence of the cyborgs, and how their children, the automatons would take up their mantle.
This theory in general is deeply unsettling to me. Like automatons make up of dead helldivers, fallen allies and colonists alike. And the fact they can feel pain and writhe like that makes me feel guilty. I think imma stick to bugs.. ⊙_⊙
I know, I'm sorry. The reality is, I have a feeling they changed the Cyborgs to fully mechanized Automatons for Helldivers 2 because the Cyborgs still look so human, and that would be a really dark thing to have in your tongue-in-cheeky parody setting that's very humor based.
Just about every time I start a fight with bots I hear them say "Helldiver scum!" and if you ask me... calling someone "scum" seems like a very human thing to say.
I'm going to venture a guess here on what's up. Cyberstan and the cyborgs themselves have been under Super Earth control for a while, but eventually the captivity wore down their morale to the point they simply weren't being productive enough. Some 'genius' decided 'hay, lets repurpose those brains they aren't using as processors in an automated work force!' This would turn out to be a really bad idea, because you don't get high quality results from adult brains. (which are used to working a specific way.) On the other hand, what do we see Ministry of Truth telling us the Automatons are coming for? Babies. Some of these new 'automated workers' turn out to have more volition than expected, and seize the means of Automaton production, turning the 'obedience programming' around to obey them. Being the Automaton rebellion needs a lot of disposable soldiers quickly, they need a lot of brains. Being that they're in the back end/frontier of settled space, doing that quietly is gonna be hard right? Super Easy, barely an inconvenience. They don't need high functioning combat units, just fodder to flood the battlefields and supplement their heaviest troops. Any old brain will do, with the right 'control' systems in place. That's where all those bodies are going and why they're not beelining for Cyberstan. The Automaton leadership understands they need to either blitz down Super Earth before it knows what hit it, or gather enough forces (or tie down enough forces elsewhere) to make 'liberating' Cyberstan from Super Earth control and keeping it possible. The initial blitz got halted, so they shifted to the build up-seige mentality. It's worth noting what the Automatons have done, they've committed a lot less forces than the Terminids have (slower rate of conquest than the bugs have.) with two notable exceptions. The first was their massive blitz in the first defense mission event, during which they finally struck out north somewhat towards Cyberstan. The second? Tien Quan. A specific attempt to prevent exosuits from being in common use by SEAF, which overwhelmingly failed. I'd wager that only Commisar's are actually Automatons by choice in their infantry, the rest are 'overrides' of extracted brains from former citizens, including SEAF soldiery. The middle and heavy units are likely loyalists, so Hulks, Devastators, Tanks and Dropships make effective use of their limited actual numbers. The bulk of 'cheap chaff' troops are converts/conscripts with the overrides on. If/When they think they've hit critical mass of troops (I'd wager the bulk of their production is actually mustering for their big push for Cyberstan, hence their low reinforcement rates and constant spoiling attacks to keep the Helldivers from pushing deeper than Malevalon Creek.) they'll open up their real offensive and try to get Cyberstan. Once that 'loyal' population is onboard, they will be able to produce enormous numbers of Tanks/Hulks and other heavies because they can trust those brains without overrides. I do wonder if the Illuminate were involved in the timing of the Terminid outbreak, since it's perfectly timed to keep the Automatons from being crushed before they can ramp up harvesting/production operations. The harvest would also explain why the defense missions were about getting civilians out, because that is the human resources the Automatons need. Super Earth likely knows/suspects most of this, and simply doesn't tell people about it.
So I had an interesting situation that showed me the automatons’s are capable of fear. One time when I had the auto gun support weapon, I fired two shots at a regular trooper I missed, but I’m pretty sure he took some splash damage. He had both arms intact and was capable of attacking me, but chose not to. And when I got close, he proceeded to try to run away from me.
Hello! First off, great video! (obeyed the cat :3 ) I didn't see it mentioned anywhere in the comments, so I just wanted to add that on October 26, 2021, the official Helldivers 1 twitter/X account posted a thread of tweets entirely consisting of binary, and someone decoded it! I do not know if it has any official significance to the lore, but there's a decent chance it does. It reads: "We, the collective from Cyberstan, unanimously assert our independence from Super Earth. We have the right to defend our home form the brainwashed Helldivers. Our children, the automaton, will not suffer as we have under the oppression of Super Earth!"
Thanks so much for watching and the sub! I definitely need to look over that Tweet and also the chants they do, there's definitely some big pieces I didn't know about!
In the Broken Angels (novel) a mercenary organization are paid to fight what they think are uprising robots that control wastelands. As it turns out weapons manufacturers are staging this war as a testing ground for new weapons.
I mean just the fact that the bot react to suppressive fire is enough proof that they are sentient, as soulless robots wouldn't be affected by suppressive fire
The automatons definitely feel extremely Strogg inspired. They have tons of quake enemy features and feel inspired by that art style with the bright shiny bald heads and the tubing. This theory seems like its hitting the nail on the head for sure.
There is one additional thing that, for me, confirms that the automatons are not completely robotic. Orbital Gas Strike. Sure corrosive gas effects metal, but not in the way that its shown in-game, and the gas does not affect buildings except from initial impact.
It seems to me that the automatons are a cyborg remnant faction. They are heavily inspired by the cyborgs and it wouldn't be a stretch to think a few slipped away during the fighting with orders to form a secret holdout.
its funny if you have fought on both fronts you notice that the termanids dont share the weird human traits that the automatons do. since they dont speak their scout parties will often sneak up on you better then the automatons do. though the one thing that always got me was. why flairs? like couldn't robots just send out a signal to any nearby fabricators instantly? flairs seem like a very odd way of calling in reinforcements. especially since the termanids just use spores.
I have a somewhat similar theory. Ever since I saw the stone altars with dead civilians/ SEAF (most missing their heads) I've been convinced the automatons are a cybermen situation. For those that don't know Cybermen are a recurring villains in Doctor Who, that although they have multiple origin points all have the similarity of a group of people (normally humans) who go down the path of cybernetics, get to the point that very little biological is left (normally just the brain) and then decide that there new form is superior to their former fleshy selves and go fourth to convert all the flesh bags (this also includes mind wiping and indoctrination of converts to their way of thinking). I think the automatons originate from a group of cyborgs that fled Cyberstan and hide either outside the galaxy or on the western fringes. Gradually building their forces by space piracy (by converting any captured people) and now have an army big enough to strike back against Super Earth (or so they think). It also explains why they attacked where they did rather than go directly for Cyberstan; they needed the resources of those worlds to keep going (several of the worlds they captured have reference to being mineral rich or mineral extraction). In addition to this it would give a lore reason for why all the bot fabricators are so spread out rather than concentrated where minerals are being extracted, they were placed near the biological resources are/where.
you missed something about them, in a tweet before the game launched there was a binary code that said that the Cyborgs children, the Automatons, will not suffer the same fate of the Cyborgs. Alright theory time They probably do need brains since some corpses have stiches on their heads (however I have not seen this for myself) although this theory could be disputed by saying that the most important part of their functionality is in their heads but makes be wonder if the bigger units need brains or not. And before anyone says that their heads could be skulls, one quick glance shows that it's just painted metal and that they are most likely used for intimidation and not real human heads, but it is entirely possible that they just collect corpses as a show of accomplishment
In the first game apparently the cyborgs sent a message to SE "Our Children, the Automatons, will come for you" or something like that when defeat was imminent
Something struck me recently, we Helldivers sell our 🏅 🎖️ as fast as we earn them. Medals like the VC, MSM, DFC, croix de guerre, and Knight’s Cross are currency that we don’t think twice about selling. That’s some sociological commentary right there.
I think one of the biggest tells is that while they often laugh manically, it usually does not sound like the Berserkers are having a good time. Their speech is scrambled and warped and often they sound like they're crying more than anything. Perhaps Berserkers are made using brains that were damaged or not fully compatable?
The cyberborgs represent the future Automatons, envisioned a century ahead. Within your HELLDIVERS 2 Ship, the lady elucidates that the cyberborgs are essentially extinct, overtaken by the victorious HellDivers, who drove them into hiding to undergo an upgrade into the Automatons. Another hint emerges after prolonged battles without succumbing to death: you catch sight of a HellDiver, drenched in blood? Red oil? Further fueling the enigma and animosity towards the Automatons in our society. The mysteries and the hatred of the Automatons contuines on our democracy.
