So many Helldivers 2 players rushed to buy mechs that it overwhelmed the servers

Following the liberating of Tien Kwan in Helldivers 2, the Exo-45 Patriot Exosuit mech went live for all players—but democracy spread too fast for the servers to withstand.

According to one of the developers at Arrowhead Studios, the public release of the mech suits led to a rush of players buying it from their Super Destroyer’s strategem menu, which overwhelmed the Helldivers 2 servers causing players to face issues logging in.

“We are aware of an issue with players not being able to get into the game,” wrote developer Mikael on the game’s Discord announcements page. “This happened when the Combat Walkers became available. People rushed to get it and it overwhelmed our Backend. We are working to fix it as soon as we can.”

This shouldn’t come as a surprise considering the speed at which players unlocked the mech suits by completing the Major Order and liberating Tien Kwan. That order went live on Thursday morning with a Sunday morning deadline, and a wave of over 126,000 Helldivers were on the surface of Tien Kwan just an hour after that order was issued. Within 24 hours, the planet was completely liberated.

Server outages and overload have been a constant thorn in the side of Helldivers 2 since its launch, though if a there’s any problem a game developer would be glad to have, it would be an instance of there being too many players. The game’s launch was plagued by a lack of server space and long queues, and an XP-boosted weekend right after only brought in more players. Helldivers 2 is in a unique situation when it comes to growth, as one of the few games ever to see its sales increase week-after-week following launch.

Once players do get in, they can acquire the Exo-45 Patriot Exosuit Strategem for 20,000 Requisition tickets, but only if they’re reached level 25. Some Exosuits can also randomly spawn on the planet surface.