Darkspawn
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 begins disguised as a normal crewmember with the ability to reveal their true form. If they refuse to do so within 25 minutes, the Darkspawn will be forced to reveal themselves.
Before divulging, the Darkspawn will need to select one of three classes, Warlock, Fighter, or Scout. Selecting a class will grant access to the basic abilities of the class. If a class is not selected before 25 minute passes, one is selected at random before the forced reveal happens.
After divulging, the Darkspawn get access to the Psi web tab of the antag menu, as well as 6 starting willpower that can be used to purchase upgrades and abilities from the Psi web. To gain more willpower, using the Devour Will ability on a humanoid will grants 2 points the first time and 1 point for every following time.
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.
If the darkspawns have neither died nor won by the 75 minute mark, an announcement will sound and it will trigger Gamma alert, this allows all players to freely join the fight to oppose the darkspawn.
Use .w to communicate with other Darkspawn.
The Sacrament
After devouring enough individuals, the Sacrament ability will be enabled. 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.
Progression abilities
A darkspawn that has selected a class will receive these abilities regardless of which class they have selected.
Fighter
Stat Differences:
- 30% reduced brute damage
- 25% increased base darkness healingInnate Abilities:
Pros:
- Easy to learn
- High durability
- High kill potential
Cons:
- Low skill ceiling
- Can struggle to restrain crewmembers for devouring will
- Can struggle to escape encounters
Tips:
- Shadow crash can provide much needed mobility for closing on targets, and at only 1 willpower to unlock, it's always a decent first purchase.
- Lightblind sigils provide immunity to flashes and flashbangs, depending on how coordinated the security team is, this can prove to be a vital upgrade.
- Duality sigils are strong. Not only does you tendril's projectile attack now knock down, but it also pulls them closer, within attacking range. It also greatly increases your melee damage output.
- Cleaving sigils provide considerable power if you're outnumbered, being able to attack several security members at once can be the difference between winning, and being overwhelmed.
- Undying sigil grants the ability to revive if your corpse is left in the dark for long enough, this can make all the difference sometimes. Though it isn't uncommon to be immediately cremated if you don't have an ally to extract your corpse.
Scout
Stat Differences:
- NoneInnate Abilities:
Pros:
- Easy to learn
- Very high mobility
- High synergy with other clases
Cons:
- Low kill potential
- Vulnerable
Tips:
- Shadowwalk sigils provide unmatched mobility while in the dark, though at 3 willpower to unlock it might be worth leaving until you've drained a bit of extra willpower.
- Traps have a fairly short cooldown and are permanent until they are triggered, so make sure to regularly place them in key choke points like maintenance airlocks.
- Traps can't be stacked, but they're hard to see, and even harder while hidden in the dark. Allies don't trigger them, and can identify what a trap does by examining it.
- The shadow caster can be used to shoot out lights from a distance, this also includes lights held by players.
Warlock
Stat differences:
- Doubled Psi cap
- Doubled Psi regenerationInnate Abilities:
Pros:
- High skill ceiling
- Global abilities
- Ability to buff allies
Cons:
- Difficult to learn
- Can struggle to escape encounters
- Can be caught unaware while using panopticon
- Weak without allies to rely on
Tips:
- Despite having lots of thrall based upgrades, warlock still has plenty of abilities to do damage directly like abyssal call, extract, or mind blast. Upgrading their staff can also make it apply debilitating effects to enemies hit by a projectile.
- If you get thralls, give them any weapons you pick up. You don't need a stunbaton or cuffs to keep anyone down (Restrain Body), 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.
- Because the only tell that thralls have requires them to strip, plasmamen thralls effectively have no tells as no reasonable person should expect them to strip.
- Thralls can be decoverted by removing the tumor in their head, however this will only work if the thrall is unconscious, as otherwise they will knockback anyone nearby when the removal is attempted.
- Thralls are granted a version of Opticial that doesn't cost psi to use, this can allow them to spread your vision network while you sit safely in maints.
- Stealing a handheld crew monitor can be valuable as if your thralls set their sensors to exact vitals (not tracking beacon), it can allow you to more accurately gauge who is in need of support at any given time.
Psi web Upgrades
Once divulged, the Psi web will become available through the antag menu. Spend willpower gained through devour will to purchase upgrades via the Psi web.
Offensive Abilities
Utility Abilities
Passive Abilities
General 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. Not only do you take additional damage from heat and burn, but fire glows dealing additional damage because of the light. 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 or purchase fire mitigation abilities afterwards.
- Try to get maintenance access before you divulge. Hacking and class specific tools are good and all, but maintenance access 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!
- 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. Thrall Mind is helpful for this, too.
- Knocking out lights all throughout the station can provide more space for a warlock to hide, and more space to roam for the scout.
- Crawling shadows can be used to get around the station smoothly as it provides both vent crawling and the ability to pass through doors.
- Encroach is good for safely passing through lit areas, making it far safer to enter a room and break the lights without taking damage. Can also be used to mitigate the light damage from fire if you're rushing to get a fire extinguisher.
- Umbral trespass can be quite versatile. Can be used on thralls to get around the station quietly and "safely". Can be used on security to briefly escape a fight. Forces you out of the target if they enter the dark, good for espionage.
- Silver tongue allows the darkspawn to recall the shuttle no matter what time it is at making this a very powerful ability especially if you start overwhelming the station.
- Purchasing the medical sigil early can ensure that you don't accidentally kill people you're trying to capture.