Assimilation
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| ENEMY STAFF | |
 Hivemind Host |
Access: Wherever your job has access to Additional Access: Wherever Mind Control gets you Difficulty: Very Hard Supervisors: None Rank: Not defined Duties: Assimilate the crew into your hive mind Guides: This is the guide Quote: Hey, I got something to tell yo- okay never mind. |
The Hivemind Hosts are what their name suggests, the hosts of powerful hiveminds, that escaped during a recent containment breach and have been at large since. Very little is known about these creatures except that they have great psionic power, and can assimilate unprotected crew into the hivemind, using their minds as fuel for their powers and their bodies as vessels to manifest them through. If the true potential of their psionic power were to be unlocked, they could wreak havoc across the stars. Thankfully, intel suggests that the hosts were forcibly separated from the rest of their minds shortly before the breach, rendering them almost powerless. Now, they take the first steps towards growing back to their former glory, and the crew of Space Station 13 is their target!
Getting started
Assimilation
Assimilated crew (Vessels) are not antagonists, and are not loyal to you, nor are they converted to your side.
With that out of the way, Assimilation is the core mechanic of the Hivemind Host. It's a very simple process, click on the Assimilate Vessel power within sight of a target (Closer is faster), select a target from the menu and stand still for however long it takes. Once that's done, congratulations, you have a vessel. If you failed for whatever reason (The target moved out of range, you got disrupted, or the target had a Mindshield Implant) then don't worry, the power's cooldown is refunded and you can try again immediately. Assimilation is completely silent and undetectable, meaning it's safe to attempt whenever you want.
Assimilating crew is the main way to gain power. The more vessels are in your hive, the more powers you unlock and the stronger some of them become.
Objectives
Hivemind hosts always have four objectives:
- Assimilate X crewmembers or Have X Assimilated crew escape alive on the shuttle
- Assimilate a specific crewmember or have the largest hive at round-end.
- Kill or maroon a specific crewmember.
- Escape alive and free.
If there are enough hivemind hosts, the third objective may become a Common Assimilation objective, where every host has the same assimilation target, and must be the only one assimilating them round-end.
If you have the assimilate a specific crewmember objective, there's a decent chance that they're loyalty implanted. In that case, you'll either have to surgically remove it, or rely on the Bruteforce ability to destroy it.
Other hivemind hosts and you
As a hivemind host, it is incredibly unlikely that you will be the only one on the station. Other hosts may want to kill you, team up with you or simply not care, although the former is probably the most common reaction. Once a host has eight vessels assimilated, they obtain Network Invasion, which allows them to probe crewmembers for information. If the crewmember belongs to an enemy hive, you will be able to temporarily track their host, and they'll be able to track their (former) vessel that just got hacked. If an enemy host assimilates you, you'll be warned after a minute and boot yourself from their hive after another minute, and they'll be able to track you for a short period of time, but don't fret, they can't tell the difference from a vessel being hacked and a host booting themselves.
The more powerful a hivemind host is, the easier they are to track and the weaker their own tracking abilities are. Using powerful abilities such as Bruteforce, Mind Control and Medullary Failure also contribute to this decay in tracking power. Tracking comes into play when a vessel gets mindshielded, as both you and the former vessel are given a radar.
Once a host has eighteen vessels assimilated, they obtain Mass Assimilation which, when used on an enemy hivemind host, will steal their entire hivemind before killing them.
Hivemind Powers
The host has plenty of psionic powers at their disposal that affect the minds of their victims. These powers are unlocked after obtaining a certain amount of vessels, and mostly affect the vessels themselves, but a few stronger powers may affect other people, or even the physical world. Even if you drop below the required hive size you still retain your powers, so once you have what you want, go wild.
Psychic Link
While not a power per se, hivemind hosts and former vessels can track people for a short period of time in certain situations as if they had a pinpointer. As a host becomes stronger, this ability becomes weaker and weaker.
If there are multiple valid tracking targets, the nearest and strongest is usually the one to be detected.
- When a vessel is mindshielded, both the host and the vessel can track each other.
- When a host uses Network Invasion on another host's vessel, the invading host can track the other, while the other host can track the vessel.
- When a host assimilates another, both hosts can track each other after a couple of minutes.
- This does not work when using Mind Control.
Assimilate Vessel
Adds a target within seven tiles to the hive after a short second channelling period. Time to assimilate varies depending on distance, taking one second when on top of the target and around 15 when a screen's width away. Doesn't work against mindshielded crew, and can be interrupted.
- Roundstart Power
Release Vessel
Immediately removes a vessel from the hive. Has the same range as Assimilate.
- Roundstart Power
Hive Sight
Allows you to see through the eyes of any vessel. Comes in handy for tracking
- Roundstart Power
Neural Shock
Knocks a target out for a period of time based on distance, for a maximum of 12 seconds(Later increases to 18/24/30/36).
- Requires 2 vessels, becomes stronger every 5 vessels until 20
Repair Protocol
Deals minor brain damage to vessels to heal brain, brute, burn and clone damage. Moving interrupts this.
- Requires 4 vessels
Distortion Field
Repeatedly causes hallucinations and stamina damage to everybody in sight of the target, twice every five seconds. Duration is based on hive size. As the attack continues, the stamina damage increases, eventually causing a knockout if the hive is large enough.
- Requires 6 vessels, becomes stronger every three vessels after 9 and until 27
Network Invasion
Probes the mind of an adjacent crewmember to discover the identity of any other hivemind hosts they've been assimilated by. Takes 10 seconds on a vessel of ours, takes 30 otherwise.
- Requires 8 vessels
Mind Control
Takes full control of a vessel's body for 10 seconds(Increases to 30/60/120 later on) as long as your body is undisturbed. If the vessel dies or falls asleep during this period so do you, so be careful. Can be cancelled at any time by recasting, and will partially refund the cost. While using Mind Control, Psychic Link will not activate.
- Requires 10 vessels, becomes stronger every 5 vessels until 25
Induce Panic
Deals stamina damage and induces a variety of negative effects to anybody in range. Mindshielded targets have a chance to resist that goes down the larger your hive is.
- Requires 12 vessels
Bruteforce
When activated, Assimilate Vessel will destroy mindshield implants on use. Lasts 30 seconds.
- Requires 15 vessels
Mass Assimilation
After 45 seconds, kills an adjacent hivemind host and assimilates every vessel within their hive. Alerts the target, have them restrained and silenced beforehand. Should you be interrupted, this will backfire horrendously.
- Requires 18 vessels
Telekinetic Field
Creates a psionic forcefield, similar to a wizard's forcewall but larger and lasting less time.
- Requires 20 vessels
Medullary Failure
Overloads a selected vessel's medulla, inducing an immediate heart attack. Incapacitates within seconds and kills within a minute if not treated.
- Requires 25 vessels
Tips
- Start assimilating early, the bigger your hive the better! Losing vessels can weaken existing powers, hamper your attempts to unlock new ones, or cause you to fail your objectives, so having a surplus of vessels is never a bad idea.
- Be careful when it comes to getting in fights. You can easily dispatch of any rogue vessels, but you have very little strength or survivability otherwise. The best way to fight is either by assimilating your target beforehand, or via proxy with Mind Control.
- If you want to kill an enemy host after having confirmed their identity, a good way is to assimilate them and then act within the two minute timeframe you get before they're booted.
- Death releases all your vessels, try not to die even if you know you'll get revived.
- Avoid getting implanted at all costs as a host, as it will reveal your identity immediately.
- Don't be afraid to kill problematic vessels, especially if they get in your way.
Tips for Security
- Vessels are not antagonists unless they are under mind control, and in most cases should not be treated as such. While it is acceptable to kill in self-defence, as Security you are heavily encouraged to implant them instead.
- Mindshielding an assimilated crewmember will immediately free them from the hivemind, and will give them the host's identity, and implanting the host will tell you that it's them. Use this to track down the antagonists!
- Keep an eye out for unimplanted officers! An assimilated officer is a deadly attack vector that should be restrained and implanted as soon as possible.
- As the HoS or Warden, if you have spare implants, consider implanting heads of staff once you've found evidence of hivemind hosts amongst the crew. The last thing you want is the HoP handing out all access because he's been mind controlled
- As an officer, if you catch them early, you can beat a hivemind host with ease. However, once they start gaining more powers, things can get out of hand unless you take them on as a team. Induce Panic can potentially end a fight, Telekinetic Field almost guarantees an escape, and while officers are normally immune to assimilation, Bruteforce renders them just as vulnerable as normal crew.
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