10 Easter Eggs Only True Fans Noticed In Helldivers 2
Arrowhead Game Studios' smash hit "Helldivers 2" has taken the gaming world by storm, spawning no shortage of memes, online discussion, and even small smidges of controversy. More players flocked to the game than even the most optimistic devs and execs at Arrowhead could have predicted. It surprised the team to such an extent it they did not have adequate server capacity for the rush of new players. This got so bad the company's CEO suggested people should temporarily stop buying "Helldivers 2" until the issues could be resolved. Since then, people have continued exploring every nook and cranny of the game — and they've found more than their fair share of interesting things.
For some, this means pushing the limits of what can be done in the game or trying their hardest to liberate planets for Super Earth and deliver democracy. For others, this has meant combing through every corner to find hidden bits of lore, jokes left behind by the designers, or references to other media franchises. Here are some of the most interesting easter eggs and small details discovered in "Helldivers 2" so far.
Starship Troopers is everywhere
You do not even need to have played the game to guess that "Helldivers 2" takes heavy inspiration from the 1997 cult classic film "Starship Troopers." If you have even a passing familiarity with the movie — and you've watch a few TikToks or YouTube videos about the game — it will be abundantly clear that the setting and tone of much of the game's lore takes more than a little bit from the Paul Verhoeven film and the book that inspired it.
Parallels can be drawn between a variety of things in "Helldivers" and "Starship Troopers." The most obvious example is the propaganda in the game, which takes the same absurdist and over the top tone and rhetoric as that in "Starship Troopers." The societies of both the film and game are divided into tiers of citizenship, and the primary way one moves up in the world is by serving in the military. Both versions of Earth are also hyper-capitalist fascistic societies at war with a race of intelligent swarming insects. These societies are also both designed as parodies of both fascist and capitalist ideologies. The weapons and armor in "Helldivers 2" also bear a striking similarity to those seen in Starship Troopers.
Lastly, the most direct reference to "Starship Troopers" can be found on the galaxy map in "Helldivers 2," which features a world called Klen Dahth II. This is a clear reference to the name of the homeworld of the bugs in "Starship Troopers," Klendathu.
@merkywaterz625 Cool easter egg in #helldivers2 #ps5 #starshiptroopers #democracy
Warhammer 40K is another satirical inspiration
"Starship Troopers" isn't the only satirical franchise from which "Helldivers 2" draws inspiration. It also shows clear parallels to "Warhammer 40K," the tabletop, video game, and possibly soon-to-be TV show, which features a hyper-militarized fascistic society and satirizes just about every trope to ever exist in science fiction, both past and present.
The contributions of "Warhammer 40K" to the "Helldivers 2" universe have much more to do with the visual aesthetics of the universe rather than in the lore of the game itself, though. The most obvious reference is the name of the faction of bug enemies that players face off against. They are called the Terminids, which obviously sounds like the Tyranids from "Warhammer 40K." These creatures are similar to the Terminids in their insectoid design and their swarming, hive-mind-like nature, and even some of their coloration.
Another more subtle reference some players may have missed comes in the form of one of the armor sets in "Helldivers 2." The DP-40 Hero of the Federation armor seems to take inspiration from not one, but two different military units in "Warhammer 40K." The proportions and shape language bear striking similarities to the "40K" universe's Imperial Guard, while the skull with wings logo in the center of the chest piece is pretty much a one-for-one ripoff of the Guard's logo. The armor's color scheme brings to mind arguably "40K's" most famous unit, the Space Marines, with its deep blue and accents of gold.
The Pyramids are for sale
Would it really be a work satirizing the absurdities of runaway capitalism if it didn't have some insane marketing for bonkers products well beyond the boundaries of even our most free-market, laissez-faire societies? Well, it's subtle and often hidden, but "Helldivers 2" has this as well.
Throughout the game, players can find posters, billboards, and various other forms of visual advertising. They're usually half-destroyed or torn into pieces, but if one looks closely, they might discover something kind of odd. The Great Pyramids — yes, those pyramids; the famous ones, in Egypt — are for sale. Not only are they for sale, but they've been converted into luxury apartments. In a truly capitalist society with no limits or regulations, nothing is sacred, not even the greatest and most historically important works of human civilization. The universe of "Helldivers 2" makes this abundantly clear; players just need to look a little bit below the surface.
There are terms of service for enlistment in the Helldivers
Speaking of things that might be indicative of a runaway capitalist hellscape: There are absurd and exploitative terms of service that no one actually bothers to read in "Helldivers 2." These can be found at the end of the brief tutorial training mission the player undertakes on Mars before being sent off to the front lines.
Peel off to the right before picking up your Helldiver's Cape and you will see a black wall covered in text. If one looks closely, you can see these are the official terms of one's enlistment in the Helldivers. Some of the more absurd elements include a "martyrdom" payment as compensation for immediate family members if a Helldiver is killed in combat and the fact that reading the contract both counts as agreeing to it and violating it at the same time. Sedition or treason, including treasonous thoughts, is of course also strictly prohibited, as it is in all places under Super Earth's watchful stewardship.
The homeworld of one of the original game's main enemies is on the map
While the original game is far less popular, "Helldivers 2" is obviously a sequel, and there are things one might only notice if they have played or read up on the original "Helldivers." One example of this can be found on the galaxy map, where the world of Cyberstan is located in one of the game's outermost sectors. This happens to be the homeworld of one of the original game's main enemy factions, the Cyborgs. While the Cyborgs have yet to make an official appearance in the second game, unlike fellow returning enemies the Terminids, the presence of their home planet on the galaxy map has led to no shortage of speculation about their return.
The most common theory among players is that the Automatons, often just called the bots, are actually tools or evolutions of the Cyborgs, and not an entirely new faction unto themselves. Thus the conclusion is that the bots are not pushing for Super Earth, but rather, for Cyberstan. They could be attempting to free their masters from imprisonment and servitude in the planet's mines. If the Cyborgs are the true goal is anyone's best guess, though there are certainly plenty of reasons to think they will. This is mostly speculation, but it certainly seems like a good guess at this point in time.
Another feared faction might be returning
Ask anyone who played the first "Helldivers" what they think of the current enemy factions in "Helldivers 2" and there's a good chance they'll say something like "just wait until the Illuminate show up" or "this is nothing compared to the Illuminate." The Illuminate were widely considered to be the most difficult and threatening faction in the original game, and there's reason to think they might be coming to "Helldivers 2" as well.
The main piece of evidence comes from one of the game's many in-game news segments that can play on a big overhead screen on a player's ship while they are waiting to start a new mission. On the bottom underneath the main story, a scrolling bottom line of other stories can be seen. One of them says that sightings of the Illuminate of been dismissed as the work of dissidents. Whether this story is actually true or misleading propaganda from Super Earth, designed to try and avoid creating panic, is anyone's guess. There has been little other information about or references to the Illuminate in the second game, outside of some random dialogue about the universe's history that players may overhear. Oh, and the mysterious snipers that Arrowhead's CEO says not to worry about.
A Rickroll hidden in the game files
It has become clear that the team behind "Helldivers 2" — with some notable exceptions that led to apologies — have quite a good sense of humor, at least based on what they have said and posted around the internet. It should not be a surprise that some of their humor made it into the game, nor what form that humor takes in some cases.
One great example of this is hidden in the game's files. While trying to fix a bug, a streamer named Redeagleeyes was going through the installation files for "Helldivers 2" when he found a link to a mysterious YouTube video. Eagle-eyed viewers of the stream and those who have seen the clip since my have recognized the link before the streamer even clicked on it. When Redeagleeyes copied and pasted the link into his browser, he was greeted by a drum intro that everyone who has spent any time on the internet has heard countless times. It was the start of Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up," perhaps the most famous song and meme on the internet. That's right; "Helldivers 2" has a Rickroll baked into the game's code.
@thegamerwebsite Helldivers 2 has a familiar easter egg hidden in the code 🕺 #helldivers2 #gamingtok #gamingontiktok
♬ 1 second count / when button pressed / time signal 03(1107043) – QUESS
Even Helldivers like snowball fights
"Helldivers 2" is a game filled with extreme amounts of blood, gore, violence, and extremely dark satire. That being said, the experience is also specifically designed to be funny. Players can ragdoll hilariously when thrown by explosions, get hit with friendly fire in seemingly absurd and impossible ways, and be swarmed by so many enemies at once that the only thing they can do is laugh.
"Helldivers 2" is not without scripted moments of levity, either. On colder planets, namely Vandalon IV, it is possible for the players to do something outright innocent and pure: have a snowball fight. The sky may be filled with Super Destroyers raining terror from above, and there might be 10 squads of automatons just behind you over that hill, but darn it if there is not ample time to stop for a childhood joy shared the world over — at least in places where it snows.
The most famous Mass Effect meme
"Mass Effect" is a franchise beloved by millions of players the world over. It has spawned tons of memes, quotable moments, and fan theories, as well as easter eggs of its own that took years to find. One quote (and the resulting memes) arguably stands far above the rest for those who have played "Mass Effect," however: "I'm Commander Shepard, and this is my favorite store on the Citadel." It appears the developers of "Helldivers 2" are also fans of this memorable line.
Head into the in-game shop and you might just catch a reference to the popular trilogy in "Helldivers 2." While browsing, players can see fake customer reviews of the armor that is for sale in the store at that given moment. One of these reads as follows, "I'm [redacted] and this is my favorite product in the acquisition center." Any "Mass Effect" fans playing the game who are fortunate enough to spot the easter egg will surely get a smile and maybe even a laugh out of it. After all, it is the most memed moment in the franchise's history.
Taken with Democratic Detonation
This one is technically from the game's marketing, but it's so much fun that we'll make an exception. Helldivers, much like your favorite action movie heroes, love their weapons. That's presumably why "Helldivers 2" decided to celebrate the launch of the explosive "Democratic Detonation" Warbond by re-enacting one of the most meme-able moments in action: The "Taken 3" fence jump. At one point in the movie, Liam Neeson hops a fence during an on-foot pursuit and the film inexplicably cuts over a dozen times in less than ten seconds. The result is a hilariously incomprehensible mess of grunting, hopping, and flipping. It's meant to look cool, but it ends up being basically everything you don't want your action movie to look like, especially if you want folks to be able to follow what's happening on screen.
The "Helldivers 2" version is just as frantic and oddly pathetic, as the armored warrior takes a pretty nasty tumble while escaping from an aggressive bug. It's an extremely deep cut reference, but connoisseurs of bad 2000s action definitely saw and appreciated Arrowhead's commitment to the bit. At least this Helldiver got to pose with an explosion behind him after all that fence-climbing, so it's not quite as awkward as the original clip. Take that, Liam Neeson!
Explosive firepower is Taken to a new level with three times the democracy and three times the detonation.
The latest Warbond, Democratic Detonation, is available now! pic.twitter.com/3m1d4mm5jn
— HELLDIVERS™ 2 (@helldivers2) April 11, 2024