Everyone
Mindflayers are IPCs who bonded with a swarm of nanomachines. The swarm posesses the power to extract and use the brain-energy from sapient beings. They are antagonists who actively seek out crewmembers and drain them for the goal of strenghtening themselves and completing their objectives. Their powers can be inhibited by a Nanite Pacifier implant, which can be ordered at any Nanotrasen supply department or made from a protolathe if the research requirements are met, and the presence of a swarm can be revealed by feeding an IPC who has extracted brain-energy `Conductive lube`.
Beginning assimilation
As a mindflayer, you drain victims of their brainwaves converting the waves into usable swarms. The swarms can be used to unlock new abilities, passive effects, and to upgrade existing effects and abilities. You can drain brainwaves from victims by targeting their head on harm intent with an empty hand. After a short time you will start draining their brainwaves but if the victim moves during draining, it will be interrupted. For the best effect you should stun them with your swarmprod and cuff them. If you do not have access to cuffs, grabbing them in a neckgrab is another option.
Draining brainwaves will inflict a small amount of lasting brain damage every second. This will affect how many swarms you can harvest from the victim. To maximize swarm gain, purchase passives that increase your draining speed or feed the victim mannitol beforehand.
Innate Powers
You start with two abilities (apart from your upgrade menu): The Swarmprod and "Quick reboot".
- The Swarmprod is a stunprod that you can extend from your arm. It stuns people when they are hit, and immediately knocks them down. The swarmprot recharches on its own and upgrading the ability increases the rate at which it recharges.
- The Quick Reboot clears all stuns and heals you for a small amount. Upgrading the ability reduces the abilities cooldown, increases the abilities duration, and the healing recieved per second.
Name | Upgrade cost | Cooldown | Description |
---|---|---|---|
Swarmprod | 50/50 | 30 Seconds | Has 4 charges. Two charges are needed to stun fully.
Can be used to stun targets. Automatically recharges enough for one hit per 40 seconds. Upgrading increases the rate of charge. |
Quick Reboot | 75/100/125 | 30 Seconds | Removes any and all stuns and removes 100 stamina damage. Heals brute, burn.
Upgrade reduces cooldown, increases amount of healing, and extends healing time by 2 seconds |
Specializations
Abilities are divided into a few categories: The Passive Abilities, Infiltrator Subclass Abilities, and Destroyer Subclass Abilities.
- Passives are always available for purchase; while the subclasses only have a few abilities available per stage.
- If you purchase an ability from the highest stage you can purchase, the next stage will unlock.
- Every subclass has an ultimate ability in the final stage, called a "Capstone". This ranges from immortality for a short time to draining people at tenfold the speed.
Passive Abilities
Name | Unlock | Upgrade cost | Description |
---|---|---|---|
Armored Plating | 30 | 30/30 | Increases armor by 5. Upgrades increase armor by another 5. |
Fluid Feet | 30 | 30 | Mute your footsteps. Upgrade gives noslip. |
Internal Faraday Cage | 40 | 60 | Resist EMP effects. Upgrade makes you completely immune to EMPs. |
Insulated Chassis | 30 | N/A | Become immune to basic shocks. |
Replicating Nanites | 50 | 50/50 | Gain a passive repairing effect. Upgrade increases healing by 1 brute and burn per tick. |
Enhanced Optical Sensitivity | 40 | 60 | Gives you nightvision. Upgrade gives you thermal vision |
Swarm Absorption Efficiency | 50 | 100/150 | Increases amount of swarms drained per second by 50%. Upgrades increases draining rate by a further 50% |
Reinforced Joints | 50 | N/A | Prevents your limbs from falling off due to damage. |
Telescopic Eyes | 50 | N/A | Allows you to use your eyes as a scope, increasing your viewing range. |
Internal Nanite Application | 40 | 40 | Slowly repair damage done to your organs. Upgrade doubles the repair rate. |
Active Abilities
Something something something, blah blah blah, mindflayers have two specialization paths with their own abilties. Something something something, blah blah blah, Here is a table of the active abilities and the relevant information.
Name | Stage | Unlock | Upgrade cost | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
Camfecting Bug | 1 | 50 | 65/80/95 | Allows us to cast a hack to a computers webcam. Alt-click the spell to access all your hacked computer webcams. Upgrades increase the amount of computers you can hack by 6. |
Traceroute | 2 | 125 | 150/175 | Allows us to cast a mark to almost any machine with a screen. To recall us to this machine, cast this next to a different machine. To check your current mark: Alt click. |
Flesh Facsimile | 2 | 80 | 80/80 | Allows us to rearrange our surface to resemble someone we see. |
Enhanced Voice Mod | N/A | N/A | N/A | Allows for the configuration of our vocal modulator to sound like a different person. We can as well amplify our voice slightly. Comes for free with Flesh Facsimile |
Destructive Interference | 2 | 80 | 40/40/40 | Allows us to toggle a close-range radio jamming signal. Upgrades increase the signal's range, with the final upgrade making us invisible to silicons. |
Integrated Access Tuner | 3 | Given upon reaching tier 3 in the Intruder tree. | N/A | Allows us to hack any door remotely. Has a range of 10 tiles. |
Heat Sink | 3 | 75 | 75/75 | Vent our used coolant to scald and disorient attackers. |
Silicon Administrative Access | 3 | 150 | N/A | Allows us to charge our hand with a mass of nanites, that hijacks cyborgs lawsets. |
Perfect Symbiosis | 4 | 400 | N/A | Increases the amount of swarms drained per second by tenfold. |
Name | Stage | Unlock | Upgrade cost | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
Laser Arm Augmentation | 1 | 75 | 75/75 | Allows us to melt our hand away, replacing it with the barrel of a laser gun. Upgrading it recharges the internal power cell faster. |
Integrated Shrapnel Cannon | 1 | 50 | 75/100 | Allows us to melt our hand away, replacing it with a makeshift cannon that shoots 3 pieces of shrapnel in a spread. Upgrading it reduces the time needed for us to recycle scrap into ammo, and the final level increases the magazine by 1. |
Badassery | 2 | 50 | N/A | Makes us more badass, allowing us to dual wield guns with no penalty, alongside other benefits. |
Integrated Grappling Mechanism | 2 | 75 | 75/75 | Allows us to shoot out our arm attached by a cable. We will drag ourself over to wherever or whoever it hits. |
Quicksilver Form | 2 | 100 | 100/100 | Allows us to transmute our physical form, letting us phase through glass and non-solid objects. After upgrading once, we also deflect projectiles shot at us. After upgrading a second time, the duration of the effect is doubled. |
Crystalized Firewall | 3 | Given upon reaching tier 3 in the Destroyer tree. | 100 | Allows us to create a wall between two points. The wall is fragile and only allows ourselves to pass through. Upgrading doubles the health of the walls. |
Overclock | 3 | 125 | 125/125 | Allows us to move and attack faster, at the cost of putting extra strain on our motors and heating us up a dangerous amount. Upgrading this improves our heat sinks, making us heat up slower. |
Torque Enhancer | 3 | 75 | 75/75 | Allows us to deal more damage with our unarmed strikes. Upgrades allows us to deal more damage with our fists. |
T.E.R.M.I.N.A.T.O.R. Form | 4 | 250 | 300/350 | Allows us, for a short time, to become unable to die or be slowed down by pain. This will not heal us however, and we will die when the duration ends if we are damaged critically enough. |