The Maltaire Gambit has begun.

As the Helldiver 2 community came together to counter the automaton's latest advance in the Andromeda Sector, an unconventional idea emerged that utilized the hidden mechanisms of galactic warfare simulations. If it worked, Super Earth could liberate two planets simultaneously. The goal would be to cut off the supply lines of the automaton on the neighboring planet Martale, thereby liberating the planet Kalon Prime without actually fighting.

Players call this the "Martale Gambit": turn all automaton resistance toward Martale and immediately liberate it, and once Martale is occupied, Sharon Prime will also be liberated. It's a powerful plan, but until a few hours ago, no one was sure it would really work.

In the Hell Divers discord, the players coordinated with community manager Spitz, who said that the galactic war simulation was set up to allow for such tactics, but that it was Joel himself who would ultimately put it into action. A few hours after the initial planning, Spitz returned to Discord with a rare dispatch from Joel himself. Martale Gambit would be honored if the community could pull it off.

"Capturing Maltaire does not automatically end the Kalon defense event. However, Joel can manually grant the victory, and if Martale's operation is successful, he will honor that commitment by granting the victory in Charon."

Let me briefly explain how this works: all currently active Helldivers 2 planets are connected by supply lines. These lines do not appear on the in-game map, but can be seen on a community-maintained galaxy map site taken from Arrowhead data. The red arrows leading from Martail to Sharon Prime (see figure below) indicate that the automaton needs Martail to maintain control of Sharon Prime. The goal of Martail's operation is to cut off the supply lines so that the automaton cannot control Sharon Prime.

It is rare for Joel to comment, even indirectly, on a player's activities, but this is an important mechanism that should be clarified, as it may affect how players approach future major orders. Spitz goes on to say that he intends to make this type of tactic work automatically in the future. [If in the future you see something like this, where you occupy an attached planet and cut off an enemy planet, please call or DM me and let me know.

If this operation is successful, it will be a huge time saver for the community and save a planet that is leaning toward automaton control. Currently, the Sharon Prime defense campaign has made little progress with less than 16 hours remaining, but Martale is over 91% liberated (and rising). Currently, Discord is concerned about Martale's negative attrition rate, but an influx of players over the weekend could turn the tide.

Another challenge facing the Martale gambit is the latest major order. Currently, the goal is to complete a total of 10 planetary defense campaigns. There are both automaton and terminid planets with active defense campaigns, and there is nothing in the game itself to suggest that Martail is a relevant planet. Nevertheless, more than 22,000 divers are active on Martale as of this writing, and if word of mouth spreads, the collaboration may pay off.

History has proven that the Hell Diver 2 community will rise to any challenge Joel can throw at them. This morning we obliterated 2 billion Terminoids in just over 12 hours.