In Helldivers 2, one name stands out above all others: Joel. The community repeatedly speaks of the godlike mystery. But who is this Joel, anyway?
If you play Helldivers 2 or follow the community discussions, you must have encountered the name “Joel”. He is said to hold the fate of the galaxy in his hands and determine the destiny of the Über-Earth.
The name Joel often comes up alongside terms like “almighty” or “God”. If you don’t know who this mysterious Joel is and what he’s all about, you will find the answers here.
Helldivers 2: Joel – The True God of the Über-Earth
Who is Joel? Joel’s full name is Joel Hakalax, and he is a Swedish employee of the development studio Arrowhead Games.
In Helldivers 2, Joel works as a so-called Game Master (short GM). These are employees who design in-game events, help with problems, punish misconduct, or mediate disputes. Joel is one of them.
Helldivers 2: The Tasks of Joel
What exactly does Joel do? Joel operates in Helldivers 2 similarly to a Dungeon Master in DnD and has the ability to exert control over the player experience.
For this purpose, the studio has made forecasts about how the campaign surrounding the galactic war could develop and integrated systems into the game that allow Joel to influence events.
The CEO of Arrowhead, Johan Pilstedt, explained: The tasks of the Game Master primarily consist of deciding which daily commands are active and where the enemies attack.
What could Joel’s influence look like in practice? In the Helldivers 2 community, there is a theory that the robots might have set their sights on the planet Cyberstan because it was the home planet of the cyborgs in Helldivers 1. Players suspect that the cyborgs are the creators of the robots.
After the players completely eliminated the front line of the robots, a much larger army of automatons attacked Cyberstan. We still do not know if there is a connection between the robots and the cyborgs, but this attack certainly fueled the theory. This could have been a deliberate decision by Joel to give the players something to ponder.
In the meantime, Helldivers 2 has also released a video that shows Joel at work. However, the video is meant to be humorous and gives the Game Master special abilities. More about this can be found on MeinMMO: Helldivers 2 shows the almighty Joel for the first time in a video, and he actually has superhuman powers
