It has been repeatedly stated that Helldivers 2 is a purely PVE experience. Its developers, Arrowhead Game Studios, flatly refused to introduce PVP modes because they always bring a toxicity that they don’t want in their video game. Most players understood this and in response certain unwritten rules were established to improve coexistence.
Despite everything, there are still players who are determined to convert Helldivers 2 in a PVP experience and want to perform their last occurrence, called Last Man Standing, whether the other players want it or not. It works like this: you call for extraction and proceed to kill each other until there are no more lives available and only one man is left standing. That one must collect the samples and escape the planet.
What seemed like a joke between friends has become a trend that has angered a good part of the community of Helldivers 2. And I can confirm that these are not isolated cases because I have encountered this situation four or five times in the last few days. YourFavoriteFinger shared his experience on Reddit: “If you are playing Last Man Standing, maybe you should let the rest of the team know?”
When the extraction ship lands, one of the other players shoots me dead. No big deal, accidents happen. I get called back and killed again. Now I’m pissed off and when I get called back, I see the other two guys (including the host) die too. I figure the host will ban him, but I’m not leaving anything to chance. This time I can kill the traitor, take the samples, and leave.
The traitor then sends a message in all caps saying “Last man standing extracts” and I get kicked. I’m a little confused as no one has mentioned this was the plan, but clearly the traitor and the host knew about it. (…) perhaps you could play a private match so that strangers who answer your SOS don’t get kicked? (…) This game isn’t PvP, so when things like this happen, it’s natural to assume the other guy shooting at you is the problem and not that you stumbled into a surprise deathmatch.
Needless to say, the comments are fiery: “The desperation to turn PvE into PvP is too great,” “They’re just plain dumb,” “I was told it’s because the game is boring now and they want to prove to the devs that people actually want PvP added. To me, that was just stupid and I left the group,” “Same thing happened to me except no one was messaging or talking to me,” and “Looks like a CoD player installed the wrong game.”
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