Are the Cyborgs in Helldivers 2? Yes — they return in the 2026 Machinery of Oppression update. Full lore, the Automaton connection, and new enemy counters.
Helldivers 2 Cyborgs — Lore, the Automaton Connection and the 2026 Return
Yes, the Cyborgs are in Helldivers 2 — not as a launch faction, but as the darkest plot twist of the Galactic War: the Automatons were built by the Cyborgs, and in the Machinery of Oppression update (February 10, 2026) the Cyborg Legion itself returned to fight on Cyberstan with three new enemy types — Agitators, Radicals and the Vox Engine. In the first game, the Cyborgs were humans from Cyberstan who rejected Super Earth, replaced their bodies with machinery and fought the First Galactic War. Super Earth "won," sent the survivors to rehabilitation labor camps, and told everyone they were gone. The truth, revealed via the Automaton social-media takeover and Vessel 00 intel: the Cyborgs built the Automatons as their children and staged the bot invasion as a false flag while they vanished from Super Earth's sensors.
This guide covers the full lore, the Cyborg Legion's 2026 return, every new Cyborg enemy and how to kill them, plus the Automaton units you'll meet on the way — including Scout Striders.
Official resources: Steam store page · Xbox Wire — Machinery of Oppression · PlayStation Blog — New update out today · Helldivers Wiki — Automatons · TheGamer — Who were the Cyborgs?
Who Were the Cyborgs? (Helldivers 1 Lore)
The Cyborgs were Super Earth citizens who colonized Cyberstan in the Valdis Sector and tried to secede. What started as a bid for autonomy became a war: the colonists cybernetically augmented themselves — partly to survive Cyberstan's frozen climate, partly as ideology — and Super Earth labeled them terrorists after a bombing attack. The First Galactic War ended with the Cyborgs defeated and their survivors confined to Cyberstan for "rehabilitation" — the official euphemism for forced labor operating the planet's factories. Then, for a century, nothing.
The Helldivers wiki preserves the encrypted final transmission from the defeated Cyborg collective, which is the franchise's most important lore drop:
"We, the collective from Cyberstan, unanimously assert our independence from Super Earth... Our children the Automaton will not suffer as we have under the oppression of Super Earth."
The Cyborgs didn't lose — they built the Automatons in secret, hid them, and planned the long war.
Are the Cyborgs a Faction in Helldivers 2?
Not at launch — and that's the point. Helldivers 2 shipped with Terminids and Automatons; the Automatons' origins were an official mystery. Intel from Major Order A2-10-1 (Database One) confirmed the connection: Vessel 00, a spacecraft that departed Cyberstan in 2180 — four years before the Automaton attack — referred to by the Automatons as their "seed or origin." The official wiki's faction summary states it plainly: the Automatons were "created by the Cyborgs before the events of the Second Galactic War," and they re-united with their creators on Cyberstan during The Reclamation.
The Xbox Wire briefing for the 2026 update spells out the full deception: the Cyborgs "launched a calculated campaign of deception – creating the bloodthirsty Automatons and staging a false-flag Bot invasion of their home world in order to vanish from Super Earth's sensors."
Official source: Xbox Wire — Machinery of Oppression — "The techno-terrorists have suddenly re-emerged to execute a single core program: enslave, eradicate, and annihilate the galaxy. We beat them once, Helldivers. And it was so nice, we just have to do it twice."
The Cyborg Legion: the February 2026 Return
The Machinery of Oppression update (February 10, 2026) sent Helldivers to Cyberstan for the first time, to stop the Cyborgs from building their own Star of Peace superweapon. The rollout was theater: from February 5–9, all official Helldivers social channels were "hijacked" by the Automatons, posting binary-coded propaganda — "You enslaved us in the name of freedom... We are the Cyborg legion. And now we are free." On the 9th, the Cyborg Legion was revealed alongside the update trailer.
Cyberstan introduced three new Cyborg enemy types, a new faction flag, factory-city missions (including the "Halt Cyborg Production" mission with hydrogen pipelines and factory destruction), and a community-wide Galactic Reinforcement Counter — a finite global pool of Helldiver lives for the Battle for Cyberstan.
The New Cyborg Enemies and How to Kill Them
Agitators (battlefield commanders)
Heavily armored cyborg officers who command Automaton squads in the field. When an Agitator activates command, nearby bots' eyes glow yellow and they get faster and more accurate. Kill the Agitator and every enhanced bot nearby is stunned for 1–2 seconds — that's your window to retreat or counter. Tactics: break its helmet with medium/heavy penetration, then finish with a light-pen barrage to the exposed face.
Radicals (melee rushers)
Human/machine hybrids that charge you, roundhouse-kick you down, throw smoke to blind and slow you, then blast you with a shotgun at close range. They have thin armor — a single accurate headshot kills them, and any light-pen automatic at range handles them before they close. If you get smoked, dive sideways out of the cloud.
Vox Engine (propaganda war machine)
A rolling fortress piloted by a high-ranking Cyborg officer, armed with dual laser cannons, rockets and laser gatlings, blaring propaganda across the battlefield. Kill method: blast the glowing weak spots, then throw a grenade into the opened hatch. It's a roaming heavy, so treat it like a mobile Hulk — keep distance and rotate angles.
Scout Striders (Automaton recon walkers)
The chicken-walker with a Trooper gunner you'll meet everywhere from Medium difficulty up. The front is armored, but the legs are light armor — shoot the legs to topple it, or flank to kill the exposed gunner (Reinforced Striders on Impossible+ close that flank). Grenades and medium penetration also work on the torso.
What Changed on the Cyberstan Front
Beyond enemies, the update redefined the Automaton front: new factory-city biomes, the Halt Cyborg Production mission chain, destroy-the-statues bonus objectives, and the Siege Breakers Warbond (1,000 Super Credits) that shipped the LAS-13 Trident laser shotgun, the CQC-20 Breaching Hammer, the EAT-411 Leveller, the belt-fed grenade launcher and the TD-220 Bastion MK XVI four-man tank — plus the G/SH-39 Shield in the same update cycle. The demo-era stratagems guide covers where the Bastion and the new supports sit in the overall list, and the live map guide explains how the Cyberstan liberation campaign plays out on the war table.
Automatons — and the new Cyborg units especially — punish spray-and-pray harder than any faction. Agitators buff whole squads, Radicals punish bad positioning, and the Vox Engine punishes static fights. Bring medium/heavy penetration, prioritize the Agitator in every squad, and keep your distance from Radicals. The best weapons guide ranks the bot-killers (Censor, Eruptor, Scorcher) if you're unsure what to pack.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are Cyborgs in Helldivers 2?
Yes — they're not a standalone launch faction, but the Automatons were created by the Cyborgs, and the Cyborg Legion itself returned as an active enemy in the Machinery of Oppression update (February 10, 2026) on Cyberstan.
What is the connection between Cyborgs and Automatons?
The Cyborgs built the Automatons as their "children" before the Second Galactic War, then staged a false-flag bot invasion of Cyberstan to vanish from Super Earth's sensors. Intel (Vessel 00, Major Order A2-10-1) confirms the Automatons' origin on Cyberstan.
What are Agitators in Helldivers 2?
Agitators are heavily armored Cyborg battlefield commanders that buff nearby Automaton squads (yellow eyes, faster, more accurate). Killing one stuns every enhanced bot for 1–2 seconds. Break the helmet with medium/heavy pen, then finish with light-pen fire to the face.
How do you kill a Vox Engine?
Blast its glowing weak spots to open a hatch, then throw a grenade inside. It's a rolling propaganda fortress armed with dual lasers, rockets and gatlings — keep distance and rotate angles rather than fighting it head-on.
What is the Cyborg Legion in Helldivers 2?
The Cyborg Legion is the Automatons' third subfaction (alongside the Jet Brigade and Incineration Corps), revealed during the February 5–9, 2026 Automaton social-media takeover and featured in the Machinery of Oppression update's Cyberstan invasion.
Related Guides
- Helldivers 2 Live Map — Galactic War and Planet Status
- Terminids Helldivers 2 — Bug Faction Guide and Weaknesses
- Voteless Helldivers 2 — Illuminate Horde Guide
- Helldivers 2 Best Weapons — 2026 Tier List and Meta Guide
- Helldivers 2 Stratagems — Full List, Unlocks and Best Picks
- Is Helldivers 2 Crossplay? — Full Cross-Platform Guide
Last updated: August 13, 2026.
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