Automatons

The are mindless, bloodthirsty robots, coded for nothing but murder and violence. Their origins are a mystery, but their unthinking hatred of Freedom makes them a threat to all citizens of Super Earth. Any information towards the origin of this threat must be reported directly to the Super Earth Ministry of Truth, as it will help the continued survival of Managed Democracy, and Freedom. Super Earth would also like to remind citizens that anyone engaging in any way with the automaton propaganda regarding supposed “oppression” or “enslavement” is a socialist terrorist, and should be reported as soon as possible.

They are one of two current factions Helldivers can currently fight against in Helldivers 2, with the other being the Terminids.

Automaton Design and Construction
Since most of the information on the Automatons is heavily censored and redacted by the Ministry of Truth, this will mostly be speculation based on the information available to the public.

The Automatons are a race of humanoid machines that appeared on the Galactic Frontier, taking over the most heavily populated human worlds. While some of the Ministry of Truth propaganda claims that Super Earth were the ones who created these machines and that they have gone rouge or were reprogrammed by someone to hate Freedom and ways of Super Earth, there a lot of evidence that Super Earth are not their creators, and their origins might be link to one of the Factions that existed during the First Galactic War.

Using a standard Automaton Trooper as the baseline for all humanoid Automatons, an Automaton stands about 2 to 2.5 meters tall. Most of the body of Automaton is made out of dark blue metal and covered in pipes and tubes, that appear to contain some kind of red liquid that appears to act like blood. The parts of Automaton head appear to be shaped in the form of a human skull without lower jaw and appear to be made from a greyish/bone white material. Digitigrade legs, red glowing eyes

Tactics
Battling Automatons requires Helldivers to adapt a drastically different approach compared to battling the Terminids. The socialist clankers are not as numerous compared to the fascist insectoids, but are capable of employing a vast array of weaponry, from energy swords and chainsaws to rocket launchers and heavy machine guns. Thus Helldivers need to find a good balance between offense and defense, seeking cover whenever possible and focus on scrapping the Automaton's heavy hitters before they can unleash their devastating attacks.

While many Automaton models are well armored, their humanoid structures possess a very notable weakness in their heads. Thus precision weaponry can have great effects on even armored Automaton models such as Berserkers and Devastators as long as the Helldiver wielding these weapons possess a steady aim.

Automatons can be rapidly deployed in large numbers of reinforcements via dropships, but much like bug tunnel breaches, it's possible to disrupt these reinforcements by either eliminating the Trooper or Commissar calling in backup before it could launch its signal flare, or shooting down the dropship using heavy anti-armor weapon such as the Recoilless Rifle (it should be noted that this may not damage / kill all of the bots on board the dropship).

Automatons can also be produced on site via Fabricators set up in their numerous outposts. Destroying the Fabricators can be done in a similar fashion to demolishing bug hives, by serving a fresh hot cup of liber-tea down their exhaust funnels or simply level the entire area using Eagle strikes or orbital bombardments. Be warned that a Fabricator will explode rather violently when destroyed, so Helldivers are to keep their distances when making their deliveries.

Automaton Outposts are often defended by Troopers manning machine gun emplacements, therefore it's advised to approach them as sneakily as possible. On higher difficulties, outposts may be guarded by Tobruks made out of dismounted Annihilator Tank turrets, therefore it's recommended to bring dedicated anti-armor weaponry against the Automatons, as the only weakness of the Tobruk is the power-pack vent on the back of the turret which may not be easily accessible depending on the terrain of the mission theater.