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The DreadZone Station is a location in Deadlocked. It was the headquarters and base of operations of Gleeman Vox and his empire, Vox Industries, and by extension the home of DreadZone. Among other things, DreadZone Station contained the Battledome, an arena where the DreadZone tournaments took place, the containment suite living quarters of all participants, and Vox's offices.

Ratchet, Clank, and Al arrived at the DreadZone Station where they were held captive and forced to compete in DreadZone challenges. Though Ratchet first approved of the living conditions offered to him there, Clank was quick to remind them that the place was a prison and not a hotel. After Ratchet defeated Gleeman Vox and shut down DreadZone, the station was destroyed.

DreadZone Station serves as a hub throughout the game. Here, the player can purchase weapons, weapon mods, upgrades for the combat bots, and view the leaderboard rankings. By taking the shuttle to the Battledome, the player can participate in many challenges for various tournaments, whereas the interplanetary transport leads to battlecourses on various planets.

History[]

Little is known of the DreadZone Station prior to Ratchet's arrival. It can be presumed that other contestants also made use of it. As it operated in the Shadow Sector, it escaped the notice of galactic authorities.[a]

DreadZone Station 1 cutscene 2

Ratchet and Clank in the containment suite.

When Ratchet, Clank, and Al were kidnapped by Vox Industries, they were taken to the DreadZone Station and given a containment suite for their team, Team Darkstar. Vox warmly introduced them to their "luxury" containment suite and offered them to make themselves comfortable. Ratchet approved at first, excited to begin his life as a professional gladiator, while Clank did not, urging him to keep in perspective that they were held prisoner there against their will.[2] Ratchet met Merc and Green, the combat bot members of Team Darkstar, at the station.

Salutations

Ratchet turning down Vox's offer.

Throughout his time competing in DreadZone, the DreadZone Station was used as a hub for Ratchet. Here, Ratchet faced three of the Exterminators: Reactor, Eviscerator, and Ace Hardlight. After defeating Hardlight, Gleeman Vox offered to make Ratchet the captain of the Exterminators, which Ratchet refused.[3] Following one more series of challenges at the Ghost Station, Clank and Al acquired schematics for the entire Battledome, and were able to find a central computer on the station's control level, located below it, that regulated power to the containment fields. However, when Ratchet arrived, he discovered Vox had already figured out this plan, hid away in a remote location, and rigged the station with six gigatons of nitroglycerin, forcing Ratchet to act quickly to free the contestants and fans.[4]

Death of a Salesman 1

Vox activating the self destruct sequence for the DreadZone Station.

Ratchet shut down the containment fields and allowed the fans to leave. Then, he defeated Gleeman Vox, who promptly set in motion the station's destruct sequence after all escape shuttles had left, hoping that him and Ratchet's death on live holovision would be the greatest ratings he'd had right at the end of his life. Clank instead arrived with a shuttle to pick Ratchet up, leaving Vox to die alone.[5]

Sometime after the station exploded, Dr. Nefarious and Lawrence' asteroid, where they had been stranded following the events of Up Your Arsenal, drifted nearby. Though they had intended to teleport there on arrival, Nefarious was dismayed to see that it had already been destroyed, and took his fury out on Lawrence.[6]

Structure[]

Overview[]

DreadZone Station map

Map of the Containment Suite and Battledome arenas.

The station orbited an unnamed planet surrounded by a number of moons, and nearby, many lanes of traffic were visible in space. It was also located along the route that Nefarious and Lawrence drifted through space.[6]

DreadZone Station was cylindrical in design, as evidenced by its immense fly-through hangar bay and circular rim. Within the circular hangar bay, the Battledome was placed at the center of the station, around which everything was based: Vox's office was located at the top, the control level was located beneath it, and the contestants' containment suites located in structures throughout the bay surrounding the Battledome structure.

Containtment suites[]

DreadZone Station 1

Team Darkstar's containment suite.

The containment suites were luxurious apartments given to the contestants.[2] The contestants were locked into these suites, and could not leave except in a shuttle taking them to various challenges to participate in, or the interplanetary transport to visit other battlecourses. The suites themselves comprised connected floating structures dotted throughout the hangar bay, with all the contestants' needs.

DreadZone Station 2

Al's workshop.

Containment suites comprised two-three structures usually connected by green glass bridges (though some contestants' structures had more enclosed bridges connecting them instead. The bridges had breathable air and artificial gravity when crossing them, and were lit by bright blue and orange neon lighting. The structures normally had antennae both top and bottom that appeared to be used to allow them to float, and varied from enclosed structures to ones with openings in the roofs.

DreadZone Station 3

Clank's area.

Ratchet's containment suite had two main rooms: one used for mission control, and a workshop. The mission control was standard for all contestants, who were typically assigned a mission engineer, though Vox simply gave Clank this role to save money after deciding not to terminate him.[7][2] Ratchet's mission control room had an open roof and three large screens monitored by Clank from his chair. The workshop room was a more enclosed structure operated by Al, with machinery used to upgrade or modify Ratchet's combat bots. In addition to these rooms, the containment suite had a Rank-O-Meter leaderboard, and shuttle access.

Battledome[]

Battledome 1

A Battledome arena.

The Battledome was an arena located at the center of DreadZone Station, and was where the DreadZone tournaments took place. It was contained in an immense tower-like structure floating at the center of the station with a rotating middle, vaguely resembling the Maktar Resort. The Battledome structure received a lot of flying traffic (likely from fans arriving to and from the arena).

Battledome 2

A Battledome arena.

The arena was spread across several different rooms with hallways in between them. Each room made use of a few artificial islands comprising platforms over either lava or an orange surface that would damage contestants and teleport them back onto the island should they fall off. The contents of the islands often changed between challenges; in some cases, the islands would contain large towers on which a challenge would be based, and in others, various layouts and traps were deployed against them. The arena rooms also had large audience podiums nearby for fans to watch the battles up close, though floating cameras followed contestants.

Tower of Power

The Tower of Power.

The Battledome structure, being at the heart of the station, was also where most rooms central to the station were located. Vox's office was located atop a tower that overlooked the Battledome arena, while the control level was located directly below it.

Control level[]

The control level was located below the Battledome. It contained a central computer regulating power to the station's containment fields, keeping all contestants trapped in the station.[4] The level also contained three fusion generators, large rotating tower-like structures, powering the containment fields, which Ratchet destroyed to release the contestants.[8]

The control level's interior design was similar to that of the Battledome, with red-tinted lighting. Between the fusion generators were a series of round rooms connected by wide corridors, both of which had glass floors above heavy machinery. Throughout the corridors were thick wires and cables beneath the glass floors and red batteries on either side running through them, while the round rooms in-between them had cogs and machinery beneath them. The fusion generators were held in larger round rooms with a similar glass floor, the rooms mostly filled by the generators.

Other structures[]

Qualification course 1

The qualification course.

In addition to the containment suites and Battledome, a few disparate structures were located in the station and were used for new contestants. One was a small medical bay where Ratchet was fitted into his new armor, and the other two were smaller structures used to introduce contestants to DreadZone. As contestants could not leave the DreadZone Station, the rooms were structured to only be passable by teleportation between them before eventually teleporting the contestant to their containment suite.

Qualification course 2

The qualification course.

The first of the smaller structures were designed primarily to allow contestants to calibrate their suits, and was a small room with only a few platforms, holograhic targets of DZ Strikers, and a teleporter to the second. The second was a small arena room resembling the Battledome arena but with no cameras or audience viewers. It was simply used as a qualification course, and had a large screen to give a presentation to new contestants on their predicament.

Multiplayer[]

Part of the Station is featured in multiplayer as the Battledome Tower map, known as the Tower of Power in-game. The map features four tall towers that support a single large and empty square platform on top, with another smaller platform underneath it. The Hypershot and jump pads are the primary way to move between the tower's own individual platforms, which are positioned at staggered levels on each tower, and also where the majority of upgrades and weapons are found.

Notes[]

Annotations[]

  1. When telling Ratchet about it, Sasha Phyronix had little information aside from rumors and the knowledge that heroes had disappeared there.[1]

Citations[]

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