After two months of major orders and countless freedom fighters lost in the name of liberty, Super Earth’s ultimate weapon is finally online: the Democracy Space Station, or DSS for short. The lengthy development cycle for the space station, as well as the narrative leading up to it, had the Helldivers 2 community in a stranglehold for the last eight weeks. Players were speculating left, right, and center about when the station would be complete, how it would work, and most importantly, how it would help them kill more terminids and automatons than ever before.
When the station finally reached completion last week, it came with a veritable cornucopia of features, capabilities, and attacks to augment planetary campaigns. The fully completed DSS is like nothing Helldivers 2 players have seen yet, so it can be a little overwhelming at first glance, but it offers a lot of interesting benefits once players get to know it.
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How does the DSS Work in Helldivers 2?
The DSS Works as a Series of Buffs for Missions and Campaigns
The DSS is stationed in orbit above one planet per day. There’s only one of them (currently, at least) so it ideally needs to be stationed above whatever planet is most critical in Helldivers 2's galactic war effort. Once every 24 hours, players can cast a vote on where the station will go next. Each player only gets one vote, so fans should be sure to make it count. There’s currently no telling what happens if the DSS is in orbit when a planet falls to an enemy, but it’s a safe bet that it’s nothing good, so it's up to the community to keep that from happening.
Once in orbit over an enemy planet, players get one of three choices of boosters for the space station to provide for all missions on that planet. The community votes for which buff they’ll receive, but the votes come at the cost of common samples, rare samples, and requisition slips. Each buff functions similarly to the environmental modifiers certain Helldivers 2 planets have in-game, meaning that they’re random and occur sporadically around the map.
Democracy Space Station Buffs
- Orbital Bombardment
- Eagle Storm
- Orbital Blockade
The orbital bombardment is the first and possibly most controversial of the three DSS buffs. Essentially, it fires random 120MM Orbital Barrages at intervals around the mission area. While this sounds great on paper since the 120MM barrage is one of the best stratagems in Helldivers 2, having this function active in a game can be trying, to say the least. The random nature of the modifier means that the Helldivers are just as vulnerable to the orbital strikes as their enemies, and there’s no clear way to see where a strike may be headed. This has lead to a lot of community discourse, meaning it will likely get tweaked in coming updates to be more fair. It also accelerates the rate at which Helldivers liberate planets.
Similarly, the Eagle Storm adds random Eagle strikes across the mission area. These have seen slightly less play time than the Orbital Bombardment buff, but it seems they’re a little more favored by the community since they're less likely to cause friendly fire incidents so far. The buff also decreases enemy progress during defense campaigns, making it harder for the bots/bugs to claim a planet from Super Earth.
The final, and perhaps most consistent, DSS buff is the Orbital Blockade. Acquired by donating requisition slips to the station, the blockade outright prevents defense campaigns from even happening, making the planet completely defensible. The buff also activates the Hellpod Optimization booster for all players, effectively granting access to a fifth booster for all operations on the planet.
The Helldivers Community Needs to Work Together to Get the Most of the DSS
Teamwork has always been a crucial aspect of Helldivers 2. Be it in the minute-to-minute gameplay or the tactical decisions made in choosing where to fight in the galactic war, a big part of the game is supporting fellow Helldivers in their ongoing campaigns across the galaxy. But it’s clear with the launch of the DSS that the community is going to need to strategize on a macro level to really reap the benefits of their hard work.
Helldivers 2
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 83 /100 Critics Rec: 91%
- Released
- February 8, 2024
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, In-Game Purchases, Users Interact
- Developer(s)
- Arrowhead Game Studios, Nixxes
- Publisher(s)
- Sony Interactive Entertainment, PlayStation Publishing
WHERE TO PLAY
The Galaxy’s Last Line of Offence. Enlist in the Helldivers and join the fight for freedom across a hostile galaxy in a fast, frantic, and ferocious third-person shooter.
URGENT BROADCAST – SUPER EARTH ARMED FORCES
Freedom. Peace. Democracy. Your Super Earth-born rights. The key pillars of our civilization. Of our very existence. But the war rages on. And everything is once again under threat.
Join the greatest military force the galaxy has ever seen and make this a safe and free place to live.
BECOME A LEGEND
You will be assembled into squads of up to four Helldivers and assigned strategic missions. Watch each other’s back – friendly fire is an unfortunate certainty of war, but victory without teamwork is impossible.
LOADOUTS
Rain down freedom from above, sneak through enemy territory, or grit your teeth and charge head-first into the jaws of combat. How you deliver liberty is your choice; you’ll have access to a wide array of explosive firepower, life-saving armor and battle-changing stratagems… the jewel in every Helldiver’s arsenal.
REQUISITION
Super Earth recognises your hard work with valuable Requisition. Use it to access different rewards that benefit you, your squad, your destroyer ship and our overall war effort.
THREATS
Everything on every planet wants you dead. That’s what we’re dealing with. Each enemy has distinct and unpredictable characteristics, tactics, and behavior – but they all fight ferociously and without fear or morality.
THE GALACTIC WAR
Capturing enemy planets, defending against invasions, and completing missions will contribute to our overall effort. This war will be won or lost depending on the actions of everyone involved.
We stand together, or we fall apart.
- Engine
- bitsquid
- Multiplayer
- Online Co-Op
- Cross-Platform Play
- All platforms
- Franchise
- Helldivers
- Number of Players
- 1-4 players (online)
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, PC
- Genre(s)
- Third-Person Shooter, Extraction Shooter, Action, Science Fiction
- OpenCritic Rating
- Strong
very own mini-Death Star.
In just a week, fans have been congregating on Reddit, Steam, and other forums debating on where to send the DSS, what buffs should be activated, and when/where to press the attack or defense. The slow nature of the station’s movement means that one mistake can have devastating consequences for the greater galactic war. It’s going to take some getting used to for sure, but if the community can come together and strategize together effectively, the DSS is going to be a huge game changer for Helldivers 2.