Darkspawn
This wiki page is in the process of a rewrite after a sizeable rework to the game mode, not all information will be accurate
EXTRATERRESTRIAL STAFF | |
Darkspawn |
Access: Wherever your job has access to Additional Access: Anywhere you can break or sneak into Difficulty: Medium - High Supervisors: None Duties: Consume people's will and turn into a screamy-monster-thing Guides: This is the guide |
Gamemode in rotation
Darkspawn begin in a similar fashion to the shadowling gamemode, disguised as a normal crewmember with the ability to reveal their true form. If they refuse to do so within 30 minutes, the Darkspawn will be forced to reveal themselves.
After divulging, the Darkspawn get access to the abilities: Pass, Devour Will, and the Psi network. Starting with 3 lucidities, the currency of the Psi network, the Darkspawn can purchase additional abilities from the Psi network. To gain more lucidity, using the Devour Will ability on a humanoid will grant 1 point.
The win-goal of the Darkspawn is to use the Devour Will ability on 5-25 unique individuals (scaling with population), and use the Sacrament ability.
Use .w to communicate with other Darkspawn.
Innate Abilities
Icon | Name | Classes | Psi Cost | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|
Sacrament | All | 0 | After absorbing enough lucidity, form a psionic barrier and perform a lengthy ritual. Once complete, the caster will ascend and the Darkspawn will win the game. Once completed once, other Darkspawns can use this ability to ascend without needing to perform the ritual. | |
Devour Will | All | 5 | Puts a dark bead in the user's hand that they can use on a living human to drain willpower and lucidity after a brief cast time. Having the cast time interrupted will briefly disable the caster. Successfully devouring a human's will grants 2 willpower and 1 lucidity, as well as putting them to sleep for 30 seconds. Careful! taking damage will instantly wake them up. You can devour a target additional times after a lengthy wait, but will receive half as much willpower and no additional lucidity. | |
Restrain Body | All | 5 | A touch attack spell that applies handcuffs to the target after a short cast time. | |
Shadow Tendril | Fighter | 0 | Summons a sizeable mass of tendrils that are capable of permanently disabling the lights of anything struck by it. These tendrils can be improved by purchasing certain upgrades. | |
Fighter Passives | Fighter | N/A | The fighter innately takes reduced physical damage, as well as heals faster in the dark. | |
Light Eater | Scout | 0 | Summons a blade that is capable of permanently disabling the lights of anything struck by it. | |
Shadow Step | Scout | N/A | The scout is able to walk through solid objects and walls so long as the location is completely dark on all sides | |
File:Veil mind.png | Thrall Mind | Warlock | 100 | A touch attack spell. Consume 1 willpower to thrall the mind of someone that recently had their will devoured. Can only thrall people up to the cap determined by the darkspawn team. Can also be used to revive dead thralls. |
Release Thrall | Warlock | 0 | Using this brings up a menu of all your thralls. Selecting one will release them from your control, allowing you to thrall additional people. | |
Panopticon | Warlock | 35 | Places a reskinned camera console that shows all darkspawn and thralls as well as any eyes placed by a warlock or thralls. | |
Opticial | Warlock | 20 | Places a reskinned camera that is used by the camera console. Also given to thralls. | |
Channeling Staff | Warlock | 0 | Summons a staff that consumes psi to shoot projectiles. Starts out being roughly equivalent to a disabler. Can be improved with additional effects by purchasing certain upgrades. |
Offensive Abilities
Icon | Name | Classes | Willpower Cost | Psi Cost | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Shadow Crash | Fighter | 1 | 20 | Charge in a direction, knock back and briefly paralyze anyone you collide with. | |
Demented Outburst | Fighter | 2 | 50 | Deafens and confuses listeners after a five-second charge period, knocking away everyone nearby. | |
Incite | Fighter | 2 | 15 | Force everyone nearby to walk towards you, but disables your ability to attack for a time. | |
Duality Sigils | Fighter | 4 | N/A | Causes umbral tendrils ability to spawn tendrils in both hands if possible, empowering both. | |
Cleaving Sigils | Fighter | 2 | N/A | Causes umbral tendrils to cleave | |
Permafrost | Scout | 3 | 65 | Freezes the ground is a 7x7 area and extinguishes the user if they are on fire. | |
Shadow Caster | Scout | 4 | N/A | Twists an active arm into a bow that shoots arrows made of solid darkness. | |
Psi Trap (Damage) | Scout | 2 | 35 | Place a trap that deals damage to non-ally that crosses it. | |
Psi Trap (Restrain) | Scout | 2 | 35 | Place a trap that restrains the legs of any non-ally that crosses it. | |
Psi Trap (Nausea) | Scout | 2 | 35 | Place a trap that makes any non-ally that crosses it sick to their stomach. | |
Psi Trap (Teleport) | Scout | 2 | 35 | Place a trap that teleports any non-ally to a random location on the station. | |
Seize | Warlock | 2 | 35 | Restrain a target's mental faculties, preventing speech and actions of any kind for a moderate duration.
Has reduced effect at range. | |
Confusion Sign | Warlock | 1 | N/A | Empower your staff with the ability to confuse any enemy shot. | |
Light Eater Sign | Warlock | 2 | N/A | Empower your staff with the ability to consume the light of anything shot. | |
Mass Hallucination | Warlock | 2 | 30 | Forces nearby enemies to experience hallucinations. | |
Mind Blast | Warlock | 2 | 40 | Focus your psionic energy into a blast that deals physical damage. Can also be projected from the minds of allies. | |
Extract | Warlock | 2 | 10/s | Channel to drain a target's life force or bestow it to an ally. | |
Abyssal Call | Warlock | 2 | 35 | Call a tendril at a targeted location to grasp an enemy. | |
Void Beam | Warlock | 3 | 100 | After a short delay, fire a huge beam of void terrain across the entire station. | |
Null Burst | Warlock | 3 | 100 | After a short delay, create an explosion of void terrain at the targeted location. | |
Icy Veins | Warlock
Scout |
2 | 30 | Instantly freezes the blood of nearby people, slowing them and rapidly chilling their body. |
Utility Abilities
Icon | Name | Classes | Willpower Cost | Psi Cost | Description |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Deluge | Fighter | 2 | 25 | Douses all nearby creatures with water, extinguishing them and protecting from fire. | |
Encroach | Fighter | 2 | 5/s | Grants immunity to lightburn while active. Can be toggled on and off. | |
Time Dilation | Fighter | 4 | 75 | Greatly increases reaction times and action speed, and provides immunity to slowdown. | |
Indomitable | Fighter | 2 | 5/s | Grants immunity to all CC effects, but locks the user into walking. | |
Void Jump | Scout | 2 | 20 | A short range targeted teleport. | |
Void Jaunt | Scout | 3 | 70 | Move through the veil for a time, avoiding mortal eyes and lights. | |
Blinding Miasma | Scout | 3 | 35 | Spews a cloud of smoke which will blind enemies and provide cover from light. | |
Efficiency Sign | Warlock | 2 | N/A | Optimize your staff to reduce the Psi cost to shoot. | |
Recovery Sign | Warlock | 2 | N/A | Empower your staff with the ability to heal allies shot. | |
Stifle Sign | Warlock | 1 | N/A | Empower your staff with the ability to extinguish the fire on allies shot. | |
Extinguish | Warlock | 3 | 60 | Extinguish all light around you. | |
Thrall Recovery | Warlock | 1 | 50 | Heals all thralls for an amount of brute and burn. | |
Thrall Envigorate | Warlock | 1 | 50 | Give all thralls a temporary movespeed bonus. | |
Elucidate | Warlock | 2 | 100 | Channel significant power through an ally, greatly healing them, cleansing all CC and providing a speed boost. | |
Null Charge | Warlock | 3 | 200 | Meddle with the powergrid via a functioning APC, causing a temporary stationwide power outage. Breaks the APC in the process. | |
Quantum Disruption | Warlock | 3 | 80 | Bend the laws of reality to allow free passage all through-out spacetime for a short duration. | |
Fray Self | Warlock | 3 | 100 | Attemps to split a piece of your psyche into a sentient copy of yourself that lasts until destroyed. | |
Umbral Trespass | All | 2 | 30 | Melds with a target's shadow, causing you to invisibly follow them. | |
Simulacrum | All | 2 | 40 | Creates an illusion that closely resembles you. The illusion will fight nearby enemies in your stead for 10 seconds. | |
Crawling Shadows | All | 3 | 55 | Assumes a shadowy form that can crawl through vents and squeeze through the cracks in doors. | |
Silver Tongue | All | 2 | 60 | When used near a communications console, allows you to forcefully transmit a message to Central Command, initiating a shuttle recall. |
Passive Abilities
Icon | Name | Classes | Willpower Cost | Effect |
---|---|---|---|---|
Medical Sigil | All | 1 | Provides you with a medhud | |
X-Ray Sigil | All | 3 | Grants X-Ray vision | |
Psionic Reserve Sigils | All | 2 | Increases the psi cap by 100. Can be purchased an infinite number of times. | |
Vigor Sigils | Scout
Fighter |
2 | Cuts stamina damage in half. | |
Mending Sigil | Scout
Fighter |
2 | Increases darkness healing by 25%. Can be purchased an infinite number of times. | |
Lightward Sigil | Scout
Fighter |
2 | Prevents taking damage in low light. | |
Stability Sigil | Scout
Fighter |
1 | Prevents slipping. | |
Storm Sigil | Warlock
Scout |
2 | Reduces ability cooldowns by 25%. | |
Lightblind Sigil | Fighter | 1 | Grants immunity to flashes. | |
Shadowskin Sigil | Fighter | 2 | Reduces light damage taken by 20%. Can be purchased an infinite number of times. Stacks Multiplicatively. | |
Callous Sigil | Fighter | 2 | Reduces brute damage taken by 20%. Can be purchased an infinite number of times. Stacks Multiplicatively. | |
Stifle Sigil | Fighter | 2 | Reduces burn damage taken by 15%. Can be purchased an infinite number of times. Stacks Multiplicatively. | |
Undying Sigil | Fighter | 2 | Grants the ability to revive if your corpse is left in the dark for some time. | |
Shadowwalk Sigils | Scout | 3 | Grants incredible speed while in the dark. | |
Psionic Relief Sigil | Warlock | 2 | Reduces the delay to regenerate psi by 5 seconds. | |
Psionic Recovery Sigil | Warlock | 1 | Doubles the speed at which psi regenerates. Can be Purchased an infinite number of times. | |
Control Sigil | Warlock | 3 | Allows for the control of two additional thralls. | |
Unity Sigil | Warlock | 1 | Allows your veil buffing spells to affect allied darkspawns too. Does not allow for self buffs. |
The Sacrament
After devouring enough individuals, the Sacrament ability will be unlocked. Upon using the sacrament ability, the Darkspawn is trapped in a 5x5 square and a global sound starts to alert the crew. After approximately 30 seconds the Darkspawn will turn into a progenitor and the emergency shuttle will be called with a 1 minute timer that cannot be recalled.
Tips
- Get together, stay together! People will arm up and travel in groups to fight darkspawn, and one darkspawn is never strong enough to fight a coordinated security force with armory gear.
- If you can wipe out security, you're in the clear for the rest of the round. All the more reason to be ready and in force when they come hunting. Of course, picking them off one by one would be ideal, but you can't always rely on them splitting up.
- Incendiary weapons are your bane. You recover slower from burns than from brute. You don't take damage from heat, but you do from light, and fires glow. This is especially bad if you're grouped up with friends, as the fire will spread among you: so, get a fire extinguisher before you divulge.
- Also get maintenance access before you divulge. Hacking and Pass-Disarm are good and all, but maintenance means you can move through and between hideouts stealthily and under time pressure. If security is searching your maint, just run across the hall into the next one over!
- Use Devour Will in combat. It's very quick to cast, and can easily be pulled off while Pass-Harm has them on the floor. Anyone you devour not only counts to your Psi and Sacrament, but is out of the fight for 30 seconds if left undisturbed. You can also crit them before they wake up if you hit fast enough.
- Unlike shadowling thralls, Lucidities are not shared between darkspawn. Try to make sure everyone gets a taste of whoever you're able to subdue. Devour Will can't be cast on someone who's still asleep from being devoured, but other darkspawn can hop onto the same victim while Devour Will is being cast.
- The Duality sigil is strong. Not only can you now knock people down with Pass-Harm, but in the same move, you get them into Devour Will range. It also doubles your melee damage output.
- Lightward and Mending sigils are also strong, just for keeping you on your feet. You'll need every sigil eventually for Sacrament anyway, but Duality, Lightward and Mending are the best.
- Veils have no tells. The only way to know one for sure is to try to mindshield them, which deconverts them.
- If you get veils, give them any weapons you pick up. You don't need a stunbaton or cuffs to keep anyone down (Devour Will), you can't shoot guns, and you probably don't have room to carry a spear. They can use all of these to bring you more prey.
- Darkspawn don't have hearts and don't passively revive in the dark light Nightmares do. If they die, the only ways to revive them are cloning or revival surgery, both of which require a fairly heavy hold on medbay. Veil Mind is helpful for this, too.
- Plasmaman helmet lights can be extinguished by Pass tendrils, but this leaves them without a helmet - which means they catch fire - which means you have limited time to devour them before they go into crit, they're still glowing, and they can set you on fire. Don't.
- Darkspawn have no particular mobility powers except Crawling Shadows' Vent crawling, which is useless in maintenance where you will be spending most of your time, and Pass-Help, which is just a lunge. Don't get pincered. Be wary of your surroundings, including and especially what's offscreen.
- Knocking out lights all throughout the station is more of a shadowling thing. You can break any light that bothers you, are considerably more durable against light than shadowlings are, and don't rely on the dark to fly through walls, because you can't fly through walls. Don't fret too much about power, although a blackout sure doesn't hurt.
- Darkspawn's greatest strength is their mobility, tentacles and lowered damage from light with sigils. Go for maint access or try and bolt open maint doors everywhere. Hopping from one maint to another is your friend, even though light-filled corridors. Darkspawn don't have good choices against multiple targets that don't require bought abilities, so your best option is to throw tentacles or turn combat mode off and fly away.
- Duality sigil is the most important upgrade. Allowing you to throw your tentacle and have them be dragged to you. While also being dragged to the tile Infront of you, increases the paralyze from 2 seconds to 3, meaning they can't do anything, and the knockdown from 6 to 8. This gives you enough time to sleep them or reform tentacles and disarm strike to turn off their lights. Perfect for throwing at someone and running away. Also increases action speed when opening/destroying airlocks.
- Veil mind is useful if you rush after putting a point in duality. Allows thralls to play sneaky as they have no visual tell outside of their actions, and forces security to focus on mindshielding all of crew instead of hunting you down. Focus on it, or don't go it at all. With 15 being the most likely number of people you'll need to devour will, most of your 18 lucidity will be spent towards the 10 required for all of the sigils required to ascend, leaving little room for defensive abilities.
- Demented outburst. Big cost, long cast time and noise that gives you away, but perfect as a defensive move. At 100 psi, up to 125 with the sigil, using it twice is about all you have in you.
- Creep is good for switching between areas, to jump out from maints to devour someone.
- Silver tongue allows the darkspawn to call the shuttle no matter what time it is at making this a very powerful ability especially if you are doing the veil mind rush.
- Tagalong. Useful if you jump on someone, jump on sec as they're hunting you, or jump on a thrall. Stops working while you're in darkness, good for espionage.
- Always Acquire maint access. Always make sure you have a way out of, and into, maintenance. Pick a quiet spot to divulge, you'll have a 3x3 area around you of purple sparkles. Careful of capes, some emit light. Pick up duality and lightward sigil. Now you have a longer stun and less burning from light. Your go-to combo is to have your tentacles ready with combat mode on, throw them, wait for the person to fly TO you (if you walk forward, you can be hit and stunned by them as if they were thrown AT you) and hit devour will to create an orb in your hand to click on them with. They're slept. Take their ID if they're sec/high ranking, and bolt. Sleeping people wake up in 30 seconds, each second reduced by each point of damage they take while sleeping. Disarm to hit lights so you don't throw yourself or the tentacle. Switch maints often. As you gain more lucidity, either pick up faster healing, faster psi regens or a defensive ability such as demented outburst. Your ascension requires UNIQUE sleeps, so don't be afraid to poke out of maints for a thrown tentacle. You WILL be found out, but darkspawn thrive on being mobile in light and their stuns. Throwing tentacles at Borgs WILL stun them and turn off their light, but you can't fight them consistently without a flash. While in maints, always have a second escape route and avoid fights where you're outnumbered. If in doubt, throw tentacles and disarm-attack people if they're hit and down, which will force them to retreat without a light. You are fast but are weak in light, meaning you need to be smart about picking your fights. Thermal vision is your best friend, and helps you poke out from maints for people staring gawk-eyed at the door.