| “ | The Voteless are former loyal citizens of  Super Earth, warped by  Illuminate experimentation into mindless soldiers for their despotic regime. They have been stripped of something even deeper than their humanity: their capacity to participate in the Democratic process.
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| ~ Helldivers 2 PlayStation Store Page |
The Voteless are an Illuminate enemy. In most of the strains found, they are essentially brainwashed Super Earth Citizens that were abducted and forcibly mutated by the Illuminate. They make up the bulk of the Illuminate chaff infantry in an almost similar manner to levies in medieval armies, causing them to be the most basic troop that the Squ'ith can field to support their other units on the battlefield.
Physiology
| “ | The Voteless were once Democracy-loving Citizens, like you and I; now they are forced to serve the Illuminate invasion. Our responsibility to them is clear: we must Free them from their tortured existence.
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| ~ Democracy Officer, amidst the Battle of Calypso |
The Voteless, being former citizens of the Federation of Super Earth, are essentially normal humans wearing the Super Earth standard issue blue overalls. However, the most distinguishable features they sport are their mutated, deformed three-fingered arms and their glowing enlarged blue eyes, encased in a bulbous, sickly, pale white head with squid-like tentacles, from which the skin has mutated into something more akin to fish skin.
In some cases, failed experimentation results in a horrifying behemoth known as the "Fleshmob", which is made up of multiple mixed masses of Voteless.
Creation
| “ | Studies on captured Voteless have begun to yield insight into their creation. Their DNA has been altered, resulting in physical deformities. Their minds, meanwhile, bear the marks of extreme thought control. Similar to our own re-education protocols... but twisted into something profane. | „ |
| ~ Democracy Officer |
Following the completion of Operation Hydra's Head, research performed on captured corpses of both Voteless and Illuminate by the 
Ministry of Science revealed that the Illuminate interspliced human DNA with unfamiliar proteins that mostly match that of the Squ'ith corpses. The results of this DNA intersplicing seem to be, as discovered so far, brain damage heavily centered on areas relating to cognitive dissonance, indicating profuse damage to the hippocampus.
Behavior
| “ | Even after 100 years, the Illuminate likely remain few in number. Their use of our citizens as shields evidences their fear of total eradication.
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| ~ Democracy Officer, amidst the Battle of Calypso |
The Voteless are the most abundant type of Illuminate enemies in-game, being the basic enemy type from this faction. They are generally seen in a horde, often being led by the Overseer. Upon spotting the 
Helldivers, Voteless will relentlessly run towards the target Helldiver, attacking with their now mutated arms. A Voteless on their own does fairly low damage, even less so than a single Scavenger. However, this makes up for their high durability; a single Voteless is able to tank several bullets on their body before finally being claimed by death. If one of their legs are severed, they will be slowed to a crawl.
Voteless along with the Fleshmobs are absent when the 
Appropriators are present on a planet.
Tactics
- The Voteless, being the bulk of the Illuminate infantry and their main chaff unit, are more of a threat in numbers than they are a threat individually. They are unarmored, and have no notable damage resistances to speak of, making any weapon effective against them.
- The SG-225SP Breaker Spray&Pray is one of the more effective weapons against hordes of voteless thanks to its wide horizontal spray and large magazine capacity, where just magdumping from the hip is enough to devastate groups at close range.
- The ARC-12 Blitzer is another popular candidate thanks to its infinite ammo and ability to stun potentially-attacking voteless.
- The SG-225IE Breaker Incendiary is also another good candidate as spraying a burst onto a horde, even outside its effective kill-range, will set several voteless on fire, killing a good chunk of the them before they close in.
- Voteless are heavily reliant on sound to detect enemies. Melee weapons and guns with the "Suppressed" trait can help keep fights with Voteless mobs more manageable as it prevents gunfire from attracting more nearby patrols.
- They are strictly melee attackers, leaping and lunging to strike further than one might expect. They can outpace a Helldiver at full sprint, making it necessary to use terrain and obstacles to control encounters.
- Voteless are surprisingly durable, sometimes capable of surviving being bisected from the waist-down, and can survive punishment that the chaff infantry of other races would succumb to. Headshots with personal weaponry is recommended to save ammunition, and to put them down quickly.
- Voteless excel at overwhelming most sentries, requiring active care to maintain their fire support advantage. As with the other factions, the Machine Gun and Gatling Sentry are most capable of self-defense, and as protection for other sentries.
- Anti-infantry and anti-horde stratagems like the Eagle Cluster Bomb and Orbital Airburst Strike all work well against the Voteless.
- Voteless are most vulnerable against gas weaponry and stratagems, as their completely melee-oriented nature, tanky disposition, tendency to blob into massive but slow hordes, and the enclosed nature of cities makes it very easy for a single caustic-specialist Helldiver to simply have entire Illuminate hordes turn on each other and thin themselves out.
- Their hardiness also means that their overseer masters will have a harder time fending for themselves while in the middle of a gas strike.
- Blocking off a choke point with a E/GL-21 Grenadier Battlement will effectively halt a voteless horde, as they lack the dexterity to climb over it, and also lack the strength to break the wall down. However, this may not last long if they are accompanied by overseers or Harvesters, all of whom have the weaponry to destroy a battlement.
Trivia
| “ | Those changed by the Illuminate have lost something deeper than their humanity. Their very citizenship has been consumed, condemning them to a fate worse than death. They are Voteless.
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| ~ Democracy Officer, amidst the Battle of Calypso |
- A clean kill (usually a headshot or arc thrower blast) will sometimes cause a Voteless to give a Super Earth Salute before expiring. Other times they will act scared, confused, or just look at their hideous forms one last time. This could be because of simple muscle memory and sign they were originally Super Earth Citizens, the salute being from a lifetime of patriotism, but it is also possible that they are temporarily freed from Illuminate mind control before expiring. In any case, there is no known way to cure them now, save for Liberty's mercy.[1][2]
- According to experiments conducted by the Ministry of Science, Voteless no longer have memories of their past lives, and are beyond saving from their cruel fate. However, given their last signs of confusion or respect, it is most likely that the Illuminate mind control only lasts as long as they're alive (or, alternatively, the MoS is merely declaring the Voteless non-sentient to reduce the amount of guilt or hesitation that
S.E.A.F. soldiers and citizens may experience when putting down their own friends and family). - Following the success of Operation Hydra Head, corpses of Voteless and Illuminate were delivered to the Ministry of Science for study. Forensic pathologists discovered that the DNA of the Voteless has been altered, spliced with proteins that match those found in Illuminate corpses. Their brains, meanwhile, are heavily damaged in areas associated with cognitive dissonance. The Ministry of Science proposes that the Illuminate likely sought to assert control over our citizens with anti-Democratic brainwashing, with the resulting dissonance causing permanent damage to their minds. However it is also possible (and more likely) that the illuminate purposely lobotomized these parts of the brain to make the voteless easier to control.
- According to experiments conducted by the
- It is worth noting that the Voteless are mostly comprised of mutated human adults, leaving the fate of any children captured by the Illuminate up to the imagination. However, given the xenophobic tendencies of the Squ'ith, the only guarantee is that those children are not safe and must be rescued from the cruel Illuminate at all costs.
- Alternatively, it is likely they were not included to avoid censorship laws in countries, where the visible depiction of children being killed is illegal or move to restricted classification.
- Voteless appear to be cannibalistic. Upon slaying a Helldiver, they can sometimes be seen kneeling down and clawing at the corpse of their victim then putting their hands on their mouths.
- Numerous Voteless corpses can be seen piled around Monoliths. An indication that the Illuminate use the voteless for other means.
- The Voteless are very reminiscent of the zombies from the Half-Life series. They both are made by crossing an alien method of possession (with Half-Life's method being an alien crab parasite while Helldivers' Illuminate directly transform humans into the Voteless) and, judging by how one can sometimes hear the Voteless mumble words and weep, both have their host remain alive and aware yet unable to stop themselves from attacking fellow humans.
- They also resemble Husks from Mass Effect, being humans converted into a zombie-like state by a technologically advanced enemy. Both Husks and Voteless also have a blue glow.
References
- ↑ The Illuminate is 10x more Horrifying when you notice this.. - Muaxh03, YouTube
- ↑ Helldivers 2 Developers added this to make you feel guilty - Seeeyog, YouTube
