Helldivers 2’s Joel gives cruelest Major Order yet as High Command eyes “disenfranchised families” as “cheap labor” to work on the dangerously sketchy new superweapon

Helldivers 2 players are faced with potentially their most morally dubious Major Order yet: help High Command enlist families of refugees to build the structurally unsound superweapon called Democracy Space Station… which doesn’t have beds or toilets and is at risk of collapse and self-combustion.

That’s pretty messed up, man. It is far from the first time I’ve seriously questioned the moral fortitude of Helldivers 2 Game Master Joel, who previously sent freedom fighters to literally blow up bug babies and sacrificed the well-being of sick children to help get the DSS built. Oh, not to mention the fact that the latest MO was widely called “unwinnable” and, wouldn’t you know it, was not won.

Still, I think this latest MO might be the elusive game master’s cruelest update yet. In a tweet, Arrowhead said Helldivers 2 players failing to complete the most recent MO was a “minor setback” and then went ahead with describing a new MO with some truly irredeemable demands.

“Despite the narrow setback, construction of the DSS continues unabated,” reads the tweet. “It is currently in its third construction phase, and before it can be activated, it must be staffed. Fortunately, cheap labor is emerging from the colonies near the Gloom that is currently experiencing something of an eruption with extremely fierce attacks coming out of it.

“The Helldivers are ordered to hold the designated planets while these disenfranchised families make their new home aboard the superweapon.”

Basically, the Terminids are attacking planets obscured by the spore cloud they created called The Gloom, and families fleeing these planets are being recruited by High Command, and apparently paid peanuts, to help build the new DSS superweapon, which could blow up and kill everyone onboard at any time. It’s players’ job to secure those planets for easy passage.

It’s still not entirely clear what the DSS will even do if and when construction is complete, which is a little weird because it’s been dominating our MOs for months the last month. Arrowhead recently said it still wasn’t ready to go “into the details,” but from what we have heard it sounds a little like the Helldivers 2 version of the Death Star from Star Wars, a galaxy hopping space station that’ll be a “powerful strategic tool for reshaping the Galactic Map” that could ultimately “change the course of the war.”

This is why you read Helldivers 2 patch notes closely: a goldfish “was laid to rest” in space where the pressure “caused it to heat up, violently explode, and disintegrate”.

After scoring a degree in English from ASU, I worked as a copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. Now, as GamesRadar’s west coast Staff Writer, I’m responsible for managing the site’s western regional executive branch, AKA my apartment, and writing about whatever horror game I’m too afraid to finish.