Shadowling: Difference between revisions

! style='background-color:#DDAADD;' width='450px'|Description

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Enthrall

|Hatch required

The benefit of thralls to shadowlings extends beyond the utility of an obedient crewmember. Shadowlings gain power directly from their thralls, unlocking new abilities with greater numbers, including their ultimate goal of ascension. Thralls also have their own lesser powers that they can use to help you.

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Hivemind Commune

|N/A

|Shadowlings and thralls share a telepathic link through which they can communicate silently, undetectably, and at zero cost or cooldown. There may be ways to discern this behavior, but it is unlikely and for now all you can do is simply let their words flow past you.

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Hatch

|N/A

|N/A

While a hatched shadowling is powerful, and much better equipped to hunt for thralls than an assistant, shadowlings are also obvious after hatching. For this reason, young shadowlings who are not yet sure of their abilities often delay hatching to avoid alerting the crew.

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|Glare is the shadowling's basic single-target stun. By forcing one target's gaze into its own, the shadowling can mesmerize a target from a range to stun and mute him for 10 seconds, '''but only if they are within 2 tiles.''' If they are more than 2 tiles away, they simply receive a temporary slowdown coupled with annoying messages (not worth it). While the duration is shorter than the cooldown, and is not long enough for a complete conversion, it does leave plenty of time to restrain the victim ''and dear god remove the headset''.

Glare's targeting relies on a selection menu if there's more than one possible target, so if there's more than one enemy or even an ally in line of sight it's ''kind of useless'' if you're in a rush - which you always are when you're trying to stun someone. Get another stun method and make this a last resort.

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|Hatch required

|12 seconds

|The shadowling's basic defensive ability, Veil instantly puts out nearly all light sources, mobile or otherwise, near the shadowling. Electronic lights such as flashlights, PDA's, gunlights, and light fixtures can be repaired simply by reactivating them, where consoles can be repaired by disconnecting and reconnecting the screen. Glowshrooms turn into shadowshrooms when exposed to this effect. Lights based in fire or bioluminescence are often resilient enough to be unaffected.

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|Hatch required

|1 minute

|Icy Veins is a formidable crowd control ability. Everyone within a short range will instantly have their body temperature reduced to freezing while receiving 5u of [[Frost Oil (Chemical)|Frost Oil]] and Shadowfrost, similar to a cryogenic sting. Targets will also be briefly stunned.

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|Hatch required

|1 minute 20 seconds

|A weakened version of Ethereal Jaunt that costs stamina while jaunting. They can move through well-lit areas like this, but at a extremely steep stamina cost. Good for hopping between maints or dodging out of a hairy fight. '''Cannot be used while on fire.'''

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|Hatch required

|10 seconds

|To access some abilities, a shadowling must draw on its thralls for power. Using this ability, shadowlings can send out mental "hooks" that latch onto the minds of their thralls, granting the shadowling a count of his thralls, and unlocking any abilities which the number of thralls now allows.

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|1 minute

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|1 minute

|A shadowling can 'empower' a living thrall. After a short time, the thrall's abilities will become stronger and they will resemble a shadowperson with three eyes. They will then have the same light sensitivity of normal shadowlings, albeit at a lesser rate. In addition, thralls cannot be dethralled while conscious if in this position. Use this to make stronger thralls of those that you intend to keep at your side for defense - the light sensitivity is a dire weakness for most others.

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|Hatch required + 7 Thralls

|30 seconds

|The shadowling can let out a piercing screech. This will confuse and deafen nearby humans, damage windows and light fixtures, and stun silicons.

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|Hatch required + 7 Thralls

|The shadowling can drain the power from an APC and prevent it from recharging until serviced. Require to stand still for 15 seconds next to the APC.

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|1 minute

|With this ability, a shadowling can revive a fallen thrall, healing them of damage completely after a short time. It will also cure diseases, genetic defects, and remove handcuffs the target may be wearing.

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|Hatch required + 15 Thralls

|N/A

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|At will

|Ascendants, with extremely high telekinetic abilities, can easily cause someone's entire body to explode simply by directing a lance of mental energy at them.

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|Ascendant only

|At will

|Ascendants can enthrall from a range and with extremely increased speed. Basically, it's a ranged and instant version of enthrall.

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|Ascendant only

|Toggleable

|An upgraded version of Void Jaunt, ascendants can simply enter the space between worlds at will at no cost. They use them as passageways, able to move from place to place extremely quickly.  

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|10 seconds

|The spiritual successor to Icy Veins. Sends out bolts of lightning to everyone nearby, dealing a significant amount of burn damage and knocking down those affected.

It should be noted that sabotaging the station to the point of which many crewmembers will attempt to call the shuttle will ultimately backfire against you. Before you hatch you should take this time to prepare for kidnapping and fighting off pursuit, collecting tools, cuffs, and other accessories that might help you deal with threats that come your way as a hatched shadowling.

So you've hatched. You have the rest of your abilities now - use them! Alert your fellow shadowlings (and thralls) that you're hatched over the hivemind, and make more thralls your first priority. You can't wear normal clothes, but you can still put on backpacks and headsets, which is an extremely good idea. You also can't fire anything that relies on a firing pin (guns), but you're immune to atmospheric damage with the exception of the glow of fire and starlight. If you're discovered by a group of people, use your defensive abilities to escape in addition to your thralls. If a single guy sees you, just glare at him, slap some cablecuffs on if you have them, take away his headset, and enthrall him. People whom you enthrall '''cannot easily be turned back to normal, although surgery is capable of doing so''' and their new loyalty to you overrides all else. If you enthrall a nuclear operative somehow, they will serve you over their Syndicate friends. If you enthrall the captain, he will do much the same.

Your priority is to gain fifteen thralls. You have the Collective Mind ability which will, after a short time, give you a count of how many thralls you have as well as the needed amount for ascendance. If you get fifteen thralls, use the ability and it will give you the Ascendance ability in a new tab. Simply use that ability and you've won - no need to escape on the shuttle!

While hatched, the light is your worst enemy. You take extreme damage from even being in it, and burn-based stuff like flashbangs, welders, and lasers all hit harder. However, on the other side of the coin, the ''darkness'' is extremely beneficial. All wounds will heal. You will have a stun reduction. You have night vision and thermal vision as well, so not being in the darkness at all is a huge downside to everything about you. Use the darkness as your buddy in times hard and easy. The darkness will always give you a shoulder to cry on. He's a bro like that.

After you hatch, you may notice that you can only see the tile you're standing on. There's a way to fix this. Look in your action buttons - you should see a blank button called Shift Nerves. This will allow you to change the range of your night vision, all the way from a full screen to none at all. This allows you to be more or less careful with your vision, and to check if something is in the light or not.  

So a shadowling mesmerized you by staring into your eyes (lewd) and now you're a thrall! What this means is that your primary goal and objective is to obey the shadowlings and help them at all costs. If you look in your tabs, you have a new one, Shadowling Abilities. In this tab is the Hivemind Commune ability, which lets you communicate on a silent channel with all other thralls and shadowlings. You're basically an [[Adamantine Golem]] in terms of where your loyalties lie -- utterly with the shadowlings. Mindshielded? Not anymore, the nanobots are dead. Wizard? Use your spells to help the shadowling. Traitor? Tough luck, if the shadowling wants your uplink you give it to him with zero questions asked. You have no free will.

There are a few benefits from becoming a slave for the rest of your life, though none too much to get excited by. You gain a few weak but potentially useful powers, which are listed below.

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|At will

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|45 seconds

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|2 minutes

|Guise is a lesser version of Void Jaunt. Unlike Void Jaunt , you do not gain incorporeal movement, and are still restricted to the physical plane. In addition, you do not turn completely invisible - rather, you are extremely difficult to see, especially in darkness. Anyone that isn't looking directly at you will only see a blurred shape. This ability lasts for around five seconds.

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So the shouts over the radio weren't wizard, ops, or blob, but shadowlings? Your work is gonna be cut out for you, soldier. Shadowlings are terrifying foes and can do much in their power to avoid you. They can even extinguish most electronic lights, so you should turn to fire-based sources and yellow slime extracts, but even then anybody can extinguish fires. Don't get caught alone or you'll live out the rest of your considerably shortened lifespan in mindless servitude.

===Things you SHOULD do===

* Travel in groups

* Bolt down floodlights in different maintenance areas where shadowlings are most active

* Watch for suspicious activity such as a mass array of lights missing.

* Consider approaching an ascendant

* Look at an ascendant in a suggestive way

===We've Been Tricked, We've Been Backstabbed and We've Been Quite Possibly, Bamboozled===

So you're in the maintenance tunnel with your group of vigilantes and ready to fight a shadowling. Suddenly you hear a horrible wail in your head and all the lights blow up. '''Not good.''' This means a shadowling has ascended. You're basically fucked over since all the shadowlings can ascend when one can.

Or maybe, somehow, you can kill it?

{{Jobs}}