Assimilation
| 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. Special circumstances my change this.
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 two objectives:
- Assimilate X crewmembers or Have X Assimilated crew escape alive on the shuttle or have the largest hive at round-end.
- Escape alive and free.
Sounds easy enough, right? Well...
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 five vessels assimilated, they obtain Network Invasion, which allows them to probe crewmembers for information. If the crewmember belongs to an enemy hive, they will be able to temporarily track the enemy host, who will be able to track their (former) vessel that just got hacked. If one host assimilates another, the assimilated one will be warned after a minute and boot themselves from their hive after another minute. The assimilating host will be able to track the assimilated for a short period of time, but if you're in that situation don't fret, they can't tell the difference from a vessel being hacked and a host booting themselves. For more information on tracking, see Psychic Link
Hosts also obtain Reclaim at five vessels which will gib any adjacent hivemind hosts as well as granting five extra vessels for the purposes of unlocking abilities as long as they are in critical, something to watch out for when combined with Network Invasion.
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 less sensitive. Using Network Invasion and Reclaim can boost the duration of your psychic links.
If there are multiple valid tracking targets, the nearest and strongest is usually the one to be detected. The more powerful a hivemind host is and the larger their hive is, the easier they are to track and the less sensitive their own tracking abilities are. Using certain abilities such as Bruteforce, Mind Control and Medullary Failure also contribute to this gain.
- When a vessel is mindshielded, both the host and the vessel can track each other. The vessels's tracking is half a minute longer than an unboosted host's.
- 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.
Roundstart abilities
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 if you move or they leave the range. A person can be assimilated by multiple hiveminds, a person being in one hive does not prevent others from assimilating them.
Release Vessel
Removes a vessel from the hive. Has the same range as Assimilate, but works instantly.
Hive Sight
Allows you to see through the eyes and hear through the ears of any vessel. Comes in handy for keeping tabs on your vessels, especially if you want to hit them with a remote 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, increasing every 5 vessels). You can use this on enemy hiveminds to give you a chance to kill them silently and without resistance, if they are in an isolated location. Or, use it to knock out and loot someone you know has useful gear.
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, ranging from 20 to 30 seconds. As the attack continues, the stamina damage increases, eventually causing a knockout if the hive is large enough. This does not affect hiveminds.
Tier 1 (5 Vessels)
Network Invasion
Probes the mind of an adjacent crewmember to activate a one-way psychic link between us and any other hosts that may own this vessel, as well as one between the other hosts and the vessel in question. Network Invasion will also improve the duration of any future psychic links by 10 seconds overall, and 30 seconds against the other hosts. Network Invasion can take a while, so ensure your target won't move.
Psychoreception
Scans the nearby area for anybody that currently has a psychic link with us or that we have a tracking bonus against. Helps you identify enemy hiveminds in crowded areas.
Reclaim
Affects adjacent hivemind hosts by dealing huge amounts of damage if they're unconscious, and gibbing them if they're in critical. Should you gib a host with this ability, you gain a global 30 second tracking bonus to any future psychic links as well as five vessels for the purposes of unlocking abilities.
Tier 2 (10 Vessels)
Induce Panic
Deals stamina damage and induces a variety of negative effects to anybody in range of yourself. Incapacitates cyborgs for a very brief period of time.
Repair Protocol
Deals minor brain damage to vessels to heal brain, brute, burn and clone damage rather quickly. Moving interrupts this.
Telekinetic Field
Creates a psionic forcefield, similar to a wizard's forcewall but larger and lasting less time.
Tier 3 (15 Vessels)
Bruteforce
When activated, Assimilate Vessel will destroy mindshield implants on use but will stun for five seconds post-assimilation. If you're confident you won't immediately get caught, this can help counteract mass implanting as well as allow you to use officers as vessels. Once you achieve One mind, you are no longer stunned.
Mind Control
Takes full control of a vessel's body for 30 seconds as long as your body is undisturbed. Your ability to move is restricted to 14 tiles from the initial point of control, moving any further will cancel the control. 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. If you attempt to mind control another hivemind, you will fail, and be notified that they were a hivemind.
Chaos Induction
Allows you to set a single, customizable objective for four random vessels of your hive. This power has one use.
Tier 4 (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. This is a powerful way to kill enemy hiveminds, or any other threat, but beware: it has a massive cooldown. Consider saving it for emergencies, like an enemy discovering your identity, so you can use this to quickly take them down before they kill you.
Circadian Shift
Sends any targets in your line of sight to sleep for a brief period of time. The more people affected, the less time it lasts, down to a minimum of eight seconds. This power also disables cyborgs for a much longer period of time than Induce Panic. This does not affect other hiveminds.
One Mind
If a hivemind host manages to reach 15 vessels, and has at least 20 more vessels than any other hivemind host(For every host killed by Reclaim, this requirement goes down by five vessels) then they unlock the power of the One Mind. Should they opt to use it, everybody on the station will hear a strange noise as the vessels temporarily black out. After this brief period, the vessels will wake up, this time glowing pink and fully connected to the hive mind's host.
You see these bastards?
They're definitely no ascendants, but their sheer numbers and undying loyalty to the host make them a menace either way. The only power these vessels gain is a hive chat, but that's enough for them to easily coordinate their hordes. The host also gains a pink aura letting him blend in with the vessels, as well as a bunch of immunities to things such as stuns, sleep and hunger. While it's possible to kill an awoken host given that they're far easier to track than before, with their legion of goons, unstunability, and slew of defensive powers, it's a herculean task. For the host, it is time to savour your victory. As soon as you can, give your vessels some orders, whether it be to bring you people to assimilate or to raid hostile departments. You could tell them to kill everybody, but that's no fun, and besides, more corpses means less people to assimilate. Either way, unless you managed to unlock this way too early, with some effort on your part the One Mind will leave you as the uncontested ruler of the station. Have fun!
Should you reach strengths far beyond your peers, and should your hive be large enough, you may unlock the true power of the One Mind.
Those who are our vessels will become One with Us, as we will become One with Them.
As for those who are not, they shall be shown the true terror of the word Hivemind.
O͍͙̞͞͝n̴̡͓̭͖̙̠͍̞͝e̵̛̤ ̴̧̬̘͕͕ͅͅo̡͓̫f̗̯͖͜͡ ̨̛̟͈̟̟͇̘̘͕ú̹̻͓̤̻̬̭s͚̺.͕͎͚͜ ̦͉̮̫̹̜̜͉ͅO̟͇̹̼̹̝̙͡ṇ̨̻̦̀ę̲͔͇̜͢ ҉̶͔͚ó̴̬̗̤̺͙f̟̞̫́͟ ͉̱̘ṷ̙̣͓̝͙̦͢͞s̶̺͎̦̗̭̤̯ͅ.͚͓̼͞
Tips
- Stealth is important! Your first new set of combat abilities are a last resort, and not for you to rush head-first into battle with. The moment the crew finds out about hiveminds is the moment the mindshields come out, constantly chipping away at your progress and allowing Security to hunt you down much more easily.
- 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.
- Try getting as close as possible without arousing suspicion before you begin assimilating, as it cuts down the time it takes significantly.
- Once you reach five vessels you are given the tools to hunt down other hivemind hosts, as Network Invasion lets you track down hosts while Reclaim lets you finish them off while unlocking the next set of powers. Host hunting also grants extra time to your psychic links, something that helps a lot when trying to evade Security or enemy hosts that may be after you.
- That being said, don't neglect assimilation, as many of your powers benefit from having a plethora of people to use them on. Powers based on hive size are not affected by the bonuses granted by Reclaim, meaning that your strength suffers in some areas.
- If you know someone is after you but your psychic link ran out, Psychoreception can give you a rough estimate of where they are.
- 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. Circadian Shift, and to a lesser extent Induce Panic, are your only reliable methods of getting out of a jam.
- You have plenty of tools to fight via proxy, once you reach 15 vessels Mind Control and Chaos Induction can easily be used for this purpose.
- 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.
- Reclaim is a powerful weapon, if an enemy host is unconscious even for a few seconds, you can send them into critical instantly. Whether you finish them off then and there or wait for it to recharge and claim the bonus is up to you.
- 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.
- With the One Mind unlocked, stealth is not an option, but with a modest set of immunities and the newfound loyalty of your vessels, you're free to do whatever you please without much fear of repercussions. That being said, you're not invincible, and what remains of Security and the other hosts will most likely be after you in full force.
Tips for Security
- Vessels are not antagonists unless they are under the effects of mind control or Chaos Induction, 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. Once the One Mind is in play, feel free to disregard this advice.
- Mindshielding an assimilated crewmember will immediately free them from the hivemind, and will give them a pinpointer leading to the host's location. This is temporary, so use it to track the antagonists while you can!
- 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!
- While implanting everybody may seem like a good idea, implants should be saved for when an officer or two is ready to escort the crewmember towards the psychic link, and hopefully capture the hivemind host.
- Cargo is your friend. Extra mindshield implants are almost a necessity once the hives start picking up steam, and should the One Mind enter the playing field, you'll need all the weapons you can get.
- 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, Chaos Induction will create more antagonists you'll have to handle, and while officers are normally immune to assimilation, Bruteforce renders them just as vulnerable as normal crew. However, the deadliest power by far is Circadian Shift, and is almost a guaranteed kill on a lone officer. Once the hosts are in their endgame, stick together!
- Implanting still works even if the One Mind has awoken, and the tracker lasts for far longer than usual! You may want to bring some crowd control tools and some lethals, as the host is immune to stuns while and can blend in easily with their posse of vessels.
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