Five-star Echoes are always the strongest, but it’s hard to figure out which five-star Echoes are the best. Divided by Sonata type (Freezing Frost, Molten Rift, etc.), these Wuthering Waves Echo tier lists reveal the best Echoes in the game.

If you want help elsewhere then knowing how to wish in Wuthering Waves will get you more rewards and the latest Wuthering Waves codes will get you all sort of useful items and resources. 

Wuthering Waves Freezing Frost Echoes

• S+ tier: Lampylumen Myriad
• A tier: Roseshroom, Autopuppet Scout
• B tier: Excarat, Glacio Predator, Tambourinist
• C tier: Sabyr Boar, Fusion Prism, Glacio Prism, Gulpuff
• D tier: Hoartoise

The Freezing Frost Echo set improves Glacio damage, especially after using a Basic Attack or Heavy Attack. Besides dealing impressive Glacio damage of its own, the Lampylumen Myriad perfectly fits the Freezing Frost Sonata by offering a Glacio and Resonance Skill damage boost. As if that’s not enough, the Lampylumen Myriad can freeze your opponents, which makes it the best Echo on this tier list.

The Roseshroom and Autopuppet Scout deal pretty good Havoc and Glacio damage respectively, but they don’t offer any utility value or buffs, which places them in A tier rather than S. The Glacio walls summoned by the Autopuppet Scout are more annoying than useful.

Although you’ll find the one-cost Echoes at the lower end of this Wuthering Waves Echo tier list, the Excarat stands out for its handy evasion ability that allows you to move underground - with a cooldown of only two seconds, it’s perfect for a fast DPS character. The Glacio Predator deals better damage than the other one-costs, and the Tambourinist has an excellent Havoc Damage bonus which would’ve made A tier if this wasn’t the ‘Freezing Frost’ Echo set. Don’t use the Hoartoise as it only restores a bit of HP for its wearer; a healer can do the same, and better.

Wuthering Waves Molten Rift Echoes

• S+ tier: Inferno Rider
• A tier: Violet-Feathered Heron
• B tier: Geohide Saurian, Havoc Dreadmane, Traffic Illuminator, Fusion Warrior
• C tier: Fusion Prism, Spectro Prism, Snip Snap, Electro Predator, Fusion Dreadmane
• D tier: Young Geohide Saurian

Molten Rift Echo sets improve Fusion damage, with an increased bonus after triggering a Resonance Skill. Thanks to its Basic Attack and Fusion Damage boost, the Inferno Rider is by far the best Molten Rift Echo. Beware that its long-press ability turning you into a fiery biker is difficult to manoeuvre in battle, but the impressive damage output of the single-press attacks is enough to land this Echo in S+ tier. 

The Violet-Feathered Heron deserves special recognition for its parry stance ability; by performing a counterattack during this stance, the Violet-Feathered Heron deals amazing Electro damage and recovers some Concerto Energy. The only downside is that it’s hard to time correctly.

Geohide Saurian and Havoc Dreadmane deal the best damage among the lower-tier Molten Rift Echoes, and the Traffic Illuminator has an immobilization availability that may be used to interrupt attacks. Fusion Warrior has amazing damage potential too, but only if you trigger a successful counterattack. Stay away from the Young Geohide Saurian’s mediocre HP restoration. 

Wuthering Waves Void Thunder Echoes

Wuthering Waves Void Thunder Echoes

• S tier: Thundering Mephis, Tempest Mephis, Fission Junrock
• A tier: Violet-Feathered Heron, Flautist
• B tier: Traffic Illuminator, Fusion Warrior
• C tier: Spectro Prism, Havoc Prism, Vanguard Junrock, Electro Predator, Aero Predator
• D tier: Young Geohide Saurian

Void Thunder Echoes enhance the wearer’s Electro Damage, with a second boost offered after Heavy Attacks and Resonance Skills. The Thundering Mephis and Tempest Mephis Echoes offer the same Electro damage bonus, but the first adds a Resonance Liberation boost while the second grants better Heavy Attack damage. They both deal a ton of Electro damage to boot, but it’s not quite enough to put them in S+ tier.

In case you're wondering what a one-cost Echo is doing in S tier; the Fission Junrock isn’t suitable for battle, but this little walking rock can loot nearby materials for you. It’ll save you a ton of time when exploring the world!

Like the Violet-Feathered Heron, the Flautist can restore Concerto Energy, which is a huge help if you need to rely on your team’s Intro and Outro Skills. While the Flautist deals better damage and recovers more Energy, the Violet-Feathered Heron can parry an incoming attack. The Traffic Illuminator and Fusion Warrior may be used for their immobilization ability and impressive counterattack damage respectively. 

Wuthering Waves Sierra Gale Echoes

• S tier: Feilian Beringal
• A tier: Cyan-Feathered Heron, Whiff Whaff
• B tier: Hoochief, Chaserazor, Fusion Warrior, Traffic Illuminator
• C tier: Sabyr Boar, Hooscamp, Aero Predator
• D tier: Young Roseshroom, Chirpuff

The Sierra Gale Echo set improves Aero damage, especially after using a successful Intro Skill. Boosting Aero Damage and Heavy Attack Damage for the wearer, Feilian Beringal is the best Sierra Gale Echo. 

The three-cost Cyan-Feather Heron is the second-best Echo on this list as it can interrupt special attacks, which is extremely handy during boss fights. Beware that you must recognize an incoming special attack to use this efficiently. The other three-cost Echoes on this tier list, Chaserazor and Hoochief, only deal Aero Damage. It’s nice to have, but nothing special. 

While the Fusion Warrior stands out for its damage potential and Traffic Illuminator for its immobilization ability, the one-cost Whiff Whaff surpasses them both; summoning a low-pressure zone, it pulls enemies together, which is an amazing tool to hit as many opponents as possible when casting your best attacks. 

Wuthering Waves Celestial Light Echoes

• S tier: Mourning Aix
• A tier: Cyan-Feathered Heron, Rocksteady Guardian
• B tier: Autopuppet Scout, Glacio Predator, Zig Zag
• C tier: Gulpuff, Spectro Prism, Havoc Prism, Havoc Warrior
• D tier: Cruisewing, Hoartoise

The Celestial Light Echo set improves Spectro Damage, especially after triggering an Intro Skill. Although the Mourning Aix doesn’t deal much damage compared to the other four-cost Echoes on this Wuthering Waves Echo tier list, the Spectro and Resonance Liberation damage bonuses make it the best Celestial Light Echo. 

The Cyan-Feathered Heron’s ability to interrupt special attacks can be a true lifesaver, but the Rocksteady Guardian is equally impressive when equipped on an HP-based character. Entering the parry state, the Rocksteady Guardian deals follow-up attacks that scale with the wearer’s HP, and can even block special attacks.

The Glacio Predator and Autopuppet Scout deal better damage than the Echoes in the lower tiers, but the Zig Zag finds itself in B tier for its stagnation ability. Although it only lasts for 1.8 seconds, stopping enemies in their tracks grants quite an advantage. The Cruisewing and Hoartoise restore far too little HP to make their abilities worthwhile. 

Wuthering Waves Sun-sinking Eclipse Echoes

• S+ tier: Dreamless
• S tier: Crownless, Tambourinist
• A tier: Havoc Dreadmane, Havoc Warrior
• B tier: Roseshroom, Excarat, Tick Tack
• C tier: Glacio Prism, Havoc Prism
• D tier: Chirpuff, Young Roseshroom

The Sun-Sinking Eclipse Echo set boosts Havoc damage, with extra damage building up after Basic- and Heavy Attacks. Although the Crownless with its Havoc-boosting buffs seems like the best Sun-sinking Eclipse Echo at first glance, Dreamless has far better damage potential. Dreamless deals 50% more damage if it's used after Havoc Rover’s Resonance Liberation, and on top of that, you may cancel its animations. You can’t do that with Crownless unless you’re willing to lose the Havoc buff.

If the Crownless’s animations last too long for your taste, the Tambourinist forms a great alternative. The Havoc damage boost is weaker, but you don’t have to do anything other than cast the Echo Skill. As for the other three-cost Echoes on this tier list, Havoc Dreadmane deals very good damage but the Roseshroom is quite underwhelming. It doesn’t help that this laser-flower remains stationary. Havoc Warrior costs less and performs better.

Excarat and Tick Tack stand out for their utility; the first makes it easy to evade attacks (two-second immunity), while the second reduces enemy Vibration Strength. Beware that it’s only 5%, but it can make a difference in early-game boss fights. 

Wuthering Waves Rejuvenating Glow Echoes

• S+ tier: Bell-Borne Geochelone
• S tier: Rocksteady Guardian, Fission Junrock
• A tier: Stonewall Bracer, Chasm Guardian, Hoochief, Whiff Whaff
• B tier: Tick Tack
• C tier: Snip Snap, Fusion Dreadmane, Vanguard Junrock
• D tier: Cruisewing

Rejuvenating Glow is a support Echo set; it improves the wearer’s healing and grants a teamwide attack bonus. Offering a damage reduction and damage boost for the entire team, the Bell-Borne Geochelone is the perfect Echo to go with this set. But that’s not all; the Bell-Borne Geochelone also deals Glacio damage scaling with the wearer’s Defense - find the right teammate to wear it, and it’s absolutely worthy of the S+ tier on this Wuthering Waves Echo tier list. 

Although the Spectro Rocksteady Guardian was put in A tier, the Rejuvenating Glow version of this Echo is far more likely to become part of a full Echo set that suits its wearer (as healing characters often scale with HP). The other three-cost Echoes, Stonewall Bracer, Chasm Guardian, and Hoochief, deal decent damage but don’t offer any utility except Stonewall Bracer, who creates a small shield for its wearer. 

Rejuvenating Glow contains far more support Echoes than any other set. The Fission Junrock is useless in combat but gathers nearby materials while exploring, the Whiff Whaff has a crowd control ability that groups enemies, and the Tick Tack depletes some Vibration Strength, all of which are useful in early game.

Wuthering Waves Moonlit Clouds Echoes

• S+ tier: Bell-Borne Geochelone
• S tier: Impermanence Heron, Fission Junrock
• A tier: Stonewall Bracer, Diamondclaw, Zig Zag, Whiff Whaff
• B tier: Chaserazor, Spearback, Geohide Saurian
• C tier: Sabyr Boar, Glacio Prism
• D tier: Cruisewing

The Moonlit Clouds Echo set improves Energy Regeneration and the Attack of the next Resonator after using an Outro Skill. Like the Rejuvenating Glow set, the Bell-Borne Geochelone is the perfect Echo to complement the support effects, especially if you find a Defense-scaling character to wear it. The Impermanence Heron is a close second though, as this Echo regains Resonance Energy with its initial attack. Impermanence Heron also offers a damage bonus to the next character who takes the field, but beware that this only works if the wearer uses an Outro Skill within 15 seconds, so it’s a bit hard to time this correctly.

Fission Junrock receives a high placement on this Wuthering Waves Echo tier list for its material collection ability. Zig Zag and Whiff Whaff deserve credit for their crowd-control abilities (stagnation and grouping) while Diamondclaw can parry and counterattack. The Stonewall Bracer deals good damage and comes with a shield ability. 

As for the remaining Echoes on this Wuthering Waves Echo tier list, those in B tier are quite strong - although they don’t offer any support skills. 

Wuthering Waves Lingering Tunes Echoes

• S+ tier: Mech Abomination
• S tier: Flautist
• A tier: Chasm Guardian, Spearback, Zig Zag
• B tier: Hooscamp, Tick Tack
• C tier: Vanguard Junrock, Snip Snap, Diamondclaw, Fusion Prism
• D tier: Young Geohide Saurian

The Lingering Tunes Echo set improves Attack and Outro Skill damage. Attack is further boosted if the wearer stays on the field for a while. The Mech Abomination is the best Echo to go with this set, as it deals massive Electro damage and offers an Attack boost for its wearer. The Flautist is a great second option though, dealing amazing damage and regenerating Concerto Energy as a bonus.

Chasm Guardian and Spearback are the best damage-dealing options on this Wuthering Waves Echo tier list, but they don’t offer support. Zig Zag can briefly stagnate enemies, which is useful to most DPS characters, and Hooscamp is another damage option while Tick Tack can help you deplete Vibration Strength.

And that’s it; have fun matching the best Echoes to your Wuthering Waves characters!

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission

'Unalloyed Malenia' is, fittingly, a creation by MiquellaTheUnalloyed over on NexusMods. It's a complete overhaul of the base game boss that seeks to "significantly" increase the difficulty via brand new phases, animations, attacks, and more for what was one of Elden Ring's toughest bosses in the first place. 

"I've been working on this Malenia... It's hard to say how long, probably more than half a year, though it didn't have a specific beginning and end," the modder writes on NexusMods. They've actually learned modding "almost from scratch" for this creation, and the general goal is to make Malenia a challenge for anyone who thinks they've got her down to a science in the base game.

Enter LetMeSoloHer. The famed Elden Ring player became known the world over for hopping into other players' Elden Ring playthroughs and decimating Malenia, often without taking a single hit. They became really famous roughly a year after Elden Ring first launched, and they're so legendary that publisher Bandai Namco went and sent them a freaking sword. 

LetMeSoloHer faced off against Unalloyed Malenia roughly a month ago, and the fight was nothing short of terrific. The player calls them "the strongest boss I've faced," and in the video below, you can see why - in modded Malenia's first phase alone, there are plenty of new attacks to grapple with, including one that shoots deadly spears up in a line from the ground. 

The entire thing is basically a game of executing perfect dodges for over 10 seconds before Unalloyed Malenia pauses briefly, and LetMeSoloHer can land an attack. The modded boss' basic attacks are pretty much a variation of the infamous Waterfowl Dance attack, but chained together near-endlessly so it gives the player barely any chance to strike back. 

The second phase is nothing short of overkill. It's like Malenia's normal second phase, but with a ton of area-effecting attacks going on, one of which is Scarlet Rot, which LetMeSoloHer occasionally has to take a moment to stave off with some Preserving Boluses. You can definitely see why this is the strongest boss that LetMeSoloHer has ever faced.

If LetMeSoloHer is finding Unalloyed Malenia this hard, you can probably imagine how everyone else is faring. One streamer on Twitter wrote that they "hated" the boss, while the streamer below shows how Unalloyed Malenia parried them and then proceeded to stab their Tarnished to death. It's rough out there.

Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC releases later this month on June 21. I really hope there's something in there that can give these sickos something to rival Malenia.

Elden Ring archeologists are still finding unused content hidden in the action RPG's files, seemingly revealing that one popular NPC was almost given a completely different voice.

Pretty much as soon as Konami and developer Bloober Team revealed the new Silent Hill 2 remake trailer and October 8 release date, fans were debating about the new character designs, particularly Maria and Angela's. Amongst the chatter, some fans were learning for the first time, thanks to the redesign, that Angela is only 19 in the original Silent Hill 2 and not in her 30s or 40s as they'd assumed due to the dated graphics. There was also some noise about Maria being less overtly sexy in the remake, but I'm frankly too tired to dig too much into that discourse so late in the day.

The reason we're here is because of Sato and his early sketches of Maria and Angela, in which there's an obvious resemblance to the remake's new character models. In the below Reddit thread, fans are comparing the original sketches to Angela's new design, and the resemblance is undeniable, particularly in the shape of the face.

It seems like the remake’s Angela, is based on Sato’s sketches. from r/silenthill

In a separate conversation on Twitter, horror streamer @Chemi_Ro shared side-by-side images of the original Maria sketches and the remake's character model, and again, it is hard to deny the latter seems to have been inspired by the former. Here, the difference mostly comes down to Maria's outfit, which is made up of a low cut top and a blazer combo instead of the button-up shirt we see in the original.

None of this is likely to move the needle much when it comes to the debate around Maria and Angel's redesigns, but it does strongly suggest Bloober Team didn't change the way the characters look on a whim. If anything, it's proof the studio is studying the source material closely, which is a good thing! We'll see if the remake can live up to the original's legacy in October.

There's a reason Silent Hill 2 is one of the best horror games ever made.

"Btw, if you choose to set your guardian to 'helmet off', you can see your newly customized face animated in a bunch of the cines in The Final Shape," cinematics director Jimmie Myers says on Twitter. "Your call! But wanted you to know it’s an option."

Destiny 2 now allows you to customize your Guardian's appearance at any time, so if you've secretly been using helmets to cope with how much you hate what you did to your character's face all those years ago, you're no longer stuck with it. There hasn't been any big overhaul to how faces look in the expansion, but the new customization option might just be enough to tempt some players to look at their character's face in cutscenes again.

Myers says helmet-off cutscenes are a priority at Bungie in a follow-up tweet. "Sometimes there are complicated reasons we can’t," Myers explains, "but we almost always put in the extra work for both options."

If you've managed to stay spoiler-free so far, you might want to go dark for the last few hours leading up to The Final Shape. A few days ago, Bungie warned of "spoilers being shared online" after a bizarre PS5 streaming leak seemingly outed the whole expansion.

Check out our guide to the best MMORPGs around. 

The leak in question dates back to 2017, when images of a trailer for the then-untitled Yoshi's Crafted World hit Reddit shortly before the game's official reveal. In the comments, the poster of that thread said "My friend work at google and he send this photo to me. It's a video that it's already in Nintendo channel and is going to be in public after the reveal." The image included an 'admin.youtube.com' URL, which certainly suggested that this particular call was coming from inside the house.

Now, 404 Media has published a breakdown of several privacy incidents at Google based on internal reports at the company, including this one. The employee, apparently a former temporary contractor, was able to "download video with admin account, and shared unreleased Nintendo feature with friend," Google's internal report concluded. "GI interview concluded non-intentional. Reactive comm sent."

The community has long suspected that many notable leakers get their information from sources like unpublished YouTube videos, and this report would appear to confirm that - at least in this instance. Judging by the admin URL in the leak screenshot, I'd wager this particular leaker had no intentions of this image being widely spread. But then, you'd also hope that your friends are cautious enough to keep you shielded from Nintendo's ire, too.

Industry analyst Daniel Ahmad says he's "heard this is how a number of game leakers operate today still," but some of those leakers are quick to suggest they've got other sources. Prolific Nintendo leaker Pyoro says they've provided info that couldn't be pulled from YouTube, for example. With the Summer Game Fest schedule for 2024 coming up in hurry, there's certain to be a lot of interest in leakers and where their information is coming from over the next few days.

As for Google, though, 404 Media is reporting on some much more serious privacy breaches than leaked video game announcements. The report notes incidents between 2013 and 2018 where Google Street View transcribed and stored license plate information, where a Google speech service logged an "estimated 1K child speech utterances," and where subsidiary Waze leaked the trips and home addresses of users of its carpool app.

These reports, again, come from Google's internal review process, and the company says in a statement that "every one was reviewed and resolved at that time. In some cases, these employee flags turned out not to be issues at all or were issues that employees found in third party services."

Predicting the games of Summer Game Fest 2024 is a lot easier when it's all leaking. 

Emilie is the first Dendro user we've seen since May 2023 and the release of Kirara, as well as the first Dendro character from the region of Fontaine. This follows a spree of Dendro characters in the 3.X Sumeru patches, with the element now enjoying eight unique characters not including the Dendro Traveler – a larger roster than the long-dormant Geo element prior to the recent release of Geo users Navia and Chiori. 

Where update 4.7 features two new five-star units, Clorinde and Sigewinne, alongside new four-star Sethos, Emilie will be the only new character in update 4.8. This, coupled with the fact that Sethos is on the way and we rarely see new four-stars back-to-back, suggests Emilie will be a five-star Dendro character.

This is the first we've seen of Emilie, who is described through her work: "Fresh, floral, fruity... Such are the scents of Emilie's perfumes, meticulously crafted, exquisitely presented, dazzlingly displayed on the shelves of Fontaine's Quartier Lyonnais," a post from the official Genshin Impact Twitter account reads. 

"If you've never before heard of a 'forensic cleaner,' you might at first struggle to imagine what such a profession entails. But if you're lucky enough to become acquainted with Emilie, feel free to ask her a question or two. She is both an excellent listener and an exemplary respondent, so you'll no doubt receive a satisfactory answer." 

The recent release of an artifact set that grants a damage bonus when fighting Burning-afflicted enemies sparked community speculation that Genshin Impact is due for a Burning-centered Dendro user, as the reaction has gone largely overlooked until now. Emilie's fighting style remains to be seen, but the timing of her release certainly raises an eyebrow. 

In a stunning commitment to playing RPGs your way, Genshin Impact player spends 3 years min-maxing the worst character: "I usually advise others not to build her".

Arguably, Nvidia has shifted from being all about making the best graphics cards to being an AI innovator. That’s not to say the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 will be the last time it sits on the GPU throne, but let’s just say it now has bigger priorities than making your Steam games look pretty these days. I’m surprised it has taken this long for the company to add some sort of virtual assistant to its tech, even though it has been putting Tensor cores to work on the visual side of things for some time. 

Revealed during Computex 2024, Nvidia describes G-Assist as “an RTX-powered AI assistant technology demo that provides context-aware help for PC games and apps.” In practice, that means it’ll use a bunch of information, both visual and in the background, to provide answers to questions and queries. That includes everything from where to find in-game items to more technical guidance that may help you boost fps. That latter element might save you from having to look at best settings guides ever again, as your GPU could tell you exactly what you should do to achieve higher frame rates and even do it on your behalf.

In a demo video, Senior Project Manager Guillermo Siman asks G-assist “What’s the best early game weapon, and where do I find the crafting materials for it?” in Ark: Survival Ascended. The assistant directly answers the first part by citing “the spear” and then goes on to list every component required to make it with both a text paragraph and voice. According to Nvidia, the data for this example comes courtesy of the developers themselves, but it’s expected that it’ll use a mix of dev and community information to generate answers in the future. 

Naturally, I’ll need to take G-assist for a spin myself before knowing if it holds up as an assistant. While the Computex demo is pretty impressive, and could ultimately change the demand for game guides and system requirements online, you only have to look at the recent shenanigans with AI pins to know things can go awry. You’ll also need a new RTX GPU to actually take advantage of the feature when it does eventually land, so you could say it’s yet another handy feature behind a premium GPU paywall. 

Looking for a complete system? Check out the best gaming PCs and best gaming laptops for a selection of rigs. Alternatively, swing by the best gaming handheld if you’re looking for a new portable powerhouse.

CipSoft's latest creation is called Persist Online, which aims to "bring hundreds of players together on a persistent server with the greatest possible freedom." Players will be able to team up to explore the open world and smash zombies, although the implementation of friendly-fire means that, inevitably, people can and will betray each other, too. 

In a statement, lead product manager Benjamin Zuckerer reveals that the zombie MMORPG first began as a hobby project, as the "brainchild of two long-standing CipSoft employees." Even though at first, "we just started developing the game we wanted to play ourselves," there are now 14 people on the development team. 

While Persist Online certainly looks different to CipSoft's previous works, it still sounds as though the developers are taking plenty from their experience working on Tibia to bring the new project to life. "The true charm of an MMORPG lies in the diverse interaction possibilities among players and the unpredictable stories that emerge from them. Decades of operating Tibia have continually shown us this," Zuckerer explains. "It’s why we believe a good multiplayer game can only be created together with the community, and even before the early access period, we will regularly organize game tests."

Speaking of that early access period, it's not currently clear when it will start - the game is already available to wishlist on Steam, but for now, it simply states that it's "coming soon." 

There's no doubt that Persist Online has some big boots to fill – even if Tibia isn't the most popular MMO in the world in 2024, the fact that it's kept going for over 27 years is an achievement in itself. On top of that, there's no denying that the MMO market is way more crowded now than it was in 1997. We'll just have to wait and see if it can live up to expectations. 

You can find even more games to play on our list of the top 10 best MMORPGs. 

Speaking in his recent Kit & Krysta podcast on Paper Mario and all things Switch-related, former Nintendo of America senior public relations manager Kit Ellis reveals that the US-side team wasn't so sure about Hyrule Warriors' global release. The surprising revelation comes during the Q&A portion of the co-host's podcast when one fan questions whether Ellis ever released "a game that other people in the company thought was bad or wouldn't live up to expectations" while working at Nintendo.

"The one game that immediately came to mind for me with this question was the original Hyrule Warriors," Ellis explains. He says that the game's premise was "definitely eye-opening at the time" as it combined Zelda with Dynasty Warriors, an undoubtedly iconic yet niche Japanese hack-and-slash series with an upcoming 2025 entry. "Within Nintendo of America, there was a lot of worry of like, 'this game's not going to be good' or 'this is going to drop the status of Zelda.'" Ellis continues, stating that the team actually considered going as far as telling Japan's Nintendo branch that it's "not going to put it out - just keep it in Japan."

Most of the studio's fears surrounding Hyrule Warriors had to do with the global perception of the Zelda series as a whole as US developers wanted "to keep this pristine image" of the beloved action-adventure franchise. In the end, the first spin-off went on to release worldwide in 2014 and was met with a generally positive reception. Positive enough, in fact, to spark an entire Hyrule Warriors series with limited editions, ports, sequels - you name it. As Ellis puts it, there is indeed "a surprisingly big audience for these games."

Can't get enough Nintendo? Check out everything we know about the Switch 2 for more.

Let's rewind the clock slightly. Just over a month ago, Helldivers 2 charged players with deploying the Terminid Control System, said to rid the galaxy of the bugs once and for all. That didn't happen, obviously - instead, the Terminids overcame the TCS, complete with its Termicide, and players were then summarily tasked with taking down the very system they'd helped establish just a matter of weeks ago.

Fast forward to this week, and Helldivers 2 players completed a Major Order to wipe an entire Terminid Super Colony off the face of the Galactic War table. There was just one catch: a black hole inexplicably sprang up in the wake of the completed Major Order, devouring the planet of Meridia, in a move that definitely isn't going to cause problems for players later on.

Now, Helldivers 2's Super Earth government has congratulated brave troopers in the 'news' broadcast below, while also saluting the black hole as "a symbol of justice on a galactic scale." I'm not quite sure how a black hole represents democracy and justice in the far reaches of space, but if the Super Earth propaganda machine gets its hands on something, you best believe it's being twisted to suit its use.

More worrying is the revelation that "Terminide 2.0 research" is now underway, according to the propaganda broadcast above. Super Earth's government apparently isn't abandoning the substance that the Terminids overcame in just weeks, and will seemingly be looking for better success the second time around with some sort of new weapon.

"The bugs are evolving aren’t they?" asks one fearful Twitter user underneath the broadcast tweet. Sure, it could be something like that, or it could be something much worse - like the arrival of the dreaded Illuminate faction from the first Helldivers, for example. 

After a bumpy Major Order victory, Helldivers 2 devs promise "more visible info" on the Galactic War table as Arrowhead discusses "various ways" of improving in-game communication.