The game’s sudden link to a high-profile case has left online spaces scrambling to keep discussions under control.
The Helldivers 2 community is dealing with unwanted attention after authorities confirmed that the game was referenced in an inscription found on a bullet casing at the scene of Charlie Kirk’s killing in Utah. The discovery has pulled the cooperative shooter and its players into a wider investigation, with community spaces moving quickly to distance themselves from the incident.
Bullet casing at shooting scene found with Helldivers 2 reference
On 10 September, conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed during an outdoor event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. Investigators later arrested a 22-year-old suspect.
Utah governor Spencer Cox told reporters in a press conference that federal investigators recovered engraved casings at the scene. One unfired shell bore the message: “Hey, fascist! Catch! ↑ → ↓↓↓”.
The sequence matches the input for the Eagle 500kg Bomb stratagem in Helldivers 2, a move that drops a 1,100-pound bomb which buries itself into the ground before detonating. It is regarded as one of the game’s most destructive abilities.
Other casings carried different inscriptions, including:
- “Notices bulge / OWO what’s this?” which refers to a furry meme tied to online role-play.
- Lyrics from the Italian folk song Bella Ciao, often linked with anti-fascist movements.
- “If you read this, you are gay lmao,” a deliberately provocative meme phrase.
Attention largely centred on the Helldivers 2 code, a focus heightened when U.S. health secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. linked video games to gun violence. Yet the engravings as a whole were inconsistent, combining political references with memes and other pop culture nods.
The mention of Helldivers 2 has unsettled parts of the game’s community. Players across Reddit and Discord expressed concern about the association and stressed that Helldivers 2 should not be linked to real-world violence.
The official Discord has been flooded with messages rejecting any link between the game and the shooting, with players urging developer Arrowhead Game Studios to respond. The Helldivers subreddit has also seen a surge of discussion, leading moderators to temporarily lock the board.
Helldivers 2 Subreddit overwhelmed after shooting reference
The mention of Helldivers 2 quickly spread across community platforms, overwhelming discussion spaces.
Moderators on the r/Helldivers subreddit locked new posts within an hour of the news breaking, citing the flood of threads that violated its ban on real-world political topics.
“Due to recent events and the high amount of posts about the topic, we will be locking the subreddit temporarily,” moderators wrote.
When r/Helldivers reopened after its temporary lock, moderators published a detailed post explaining the decision and setting out conditions for continued discussion.
The post acknowledged that “yesterday was an interesting day for the Helldivers community” and recapped events for members who had missed the news. Moderators referenced U.S. reports that the suspect in the killing of Charlie Kirk had engraved the Eagle 500kg Bomb stratagem code from Helldivers 2 onto a bullet casing.
They said that within an hour of the news breaking, the subreddit had been “absolutely flooded” with posts and comments about the case, most of which violated rule 12, which prohibits real-world political discussions. According to the statement, moderators were “removing dozens of posts by the minute and even more comments.” The team explained that locking new posts was a way to give both moderators and users “some time to breathe until the news cycle moves on,” and emphasised that nobody had been banned during the initial wave.
In the “What Now?” section, moderators confirmed that the subreddit was open again but warned members to follow the rules, especially rule 1 on civility and rule 12 on political discussion. The post stated that anyone bringing up the murder or anything related to it would face a ban of at least seven days, potentially longer depending on the content. This restriction explicitly included news articles, memes, and references to the Eagle 500kg stratagem.
The moderators added that users wishing to discuss real-world political events should do so in other subreddits, and closed by stressing that the moderation team “does not support or condone real-world political violence.”
Helldivers 2, developed by Arrowhead Game Studios and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, launched in February 2024 on PlayStation 5 and Windows PC, followed by an Xbox Series X release in August. The satirical third-person shooter puts players in the role of soldiers from “Super Earth,” tasked with battling alien forces and spreading “managed democracy,” a premise often compared to Starship Troopers.
Arrowhead Game Studios has not released any public statement in connection with the case.
