Helldivers 2 gave players a deliberately awful, crusty rifle from 1903 but they love it because they can bayonet charge bugs like sci-fi Waterloo

Another liberty day has come and gone in the world of Helldivers 2, with the patriotic citizens of Super Earth rewarded by developers Arrowhead Game Studios with a throwback to the first Helldivers and the game's first melee weapon: The 2124 Constitution rifle and the armor set from the original game. A thinly-disguised M1903 Springfield, the American rifle of choice in the First World War, the Constitution is described in-game as the rifle given to all citizens of Super Earth at the age of 16 and in the timeline of Helldivers 2 is a design nearly 300 years old. Suffice to say that with its five-round magazine reloaded one bullet at a time and bolt action, it is basically terrible... but unlike every other gun in the game so far, it has a bayonet on it.

Naturally, the community absolutely loves it because they can bayonet charge a line of murderous robots or bugs like they're an American marine at sci-fi Belleau Wood in 1918. "This my brothers is a gun," said one poster. "This is the best weapon ever," said another. "You can even stab tanks!" said a third. "Constitution Rifle is peak," said a fourth, posting a comparison TikTok of the weapon with its famous use by the sniper in Saving Private Ryan.

It's basically the game community equivalent of a thunderous applause because the self-imposed challenge-heads in the Helldivers community absolutely love it when something is kind of bad, but not so bad that they can't use it anyway. Everyone else? Everyone else just lovers bayonetting things. A development that shouldn't come as a surprise when they've been hankering for melee weapons since the launch of Helldivers 2.

Back in April Arrowhead did give some indication of their opinion on a Melee weapon, saying it was "plausible" but would have to take a realistic tack to fit in with the rest of Helldivers' very grounded weapons. So here you have it. A crusty old bayonet on a rifle from the last era of warfare where having more guys with bayonets could truly make a deciding difference in combat.

If you haven't figured it out by now, here's the thing about the Constitution: They made it bad on purpose. As a joke. It's explicitly worse than most of the game's secondary armament pistols, even. In the first Helldivers it was considered a weapon you'd only use for self-imposed challenges of some kind.

That shouldn't come as a surprise from developers Arrowhead, whose breakout hit on the gaming scene was Magicka: A Wizard-themed comedy game where you blow up your friends with your spells as much as you blow up yourself and your enemies. The first Helldivers was much the same, and though Helldivers 2 is a more serious game mechanically the comedy of blowing yourself (and your friends) up is still there.

So definitely don't expect it to show up on the list of Best Helldivers 2 weapons, though if you like you can already go out and watch plenty of elaborate mechanical breakdown videos where a YouTuber compares stats and concludes that it is, indeed, a bad gun. Those will come with a varying degree of comedy depending on whether the person in question got the joke or not.

Up next in the world of Helldivers the developers are looking to go "full baddies" with the jackbooted footsoldiers of Super Earth by dropping the Truth Enforcers warbond, a set of weapons and equipment appropriately donned by Super Earth's ominous Ministry of Truth.