Deadnauts
You command a crew of Deadnauts, so named because they rarely make it back to Earth. They each have their reasons for signing up - glory, escape, fear, penance - and they all have something to offer.
Some are experienced soldiers, others are master hackers. Some have been exploring for years and have developed a special intuition for this kind of work.
But there's no guarantee they'll work together. They don't have to like each other. They don't have to like you. They're not a well-oiled combat machine. They might be unstable and they have their flaws.
Roles
Although there are no character classes, your Deadnauts will generally fulfil of one of four general roles.
- Weapons: The most common kind of Deadnaut. Specialises in combat and carries offensive equipment.
- Shields: Usually equipped with one or more shields. With the right equipment, they can also project a shield onto another Deadnaut
- Sensors: Detection is one of the most important parts of the game - if you can't see an enemy, you can't shoot it. Sensor specialists can not only detect threats on multiple wavelengths, they can also actively scan a distant location.
- Tech: Tech specialists are mostly involved with hacking and investigation. They can hack faster and longer, meaning they can manipulate things from a longer distance.
Attributes
Deadnauts have the following fundamental attributes
- Vigor: Speed, strength and hardiness
- Acuity: Awareness and perception
- Wits: Cognitive abilities and intelligence
- Grit: Experience, bravery and cohesion
Attributes are generally fixed throughout the game. However, they can be manipulated briefly using special stimulants. Be warned: when a stimulant wears off, the Deadnaut will go into a withdrawal phase and take penalties.
Skills
Skills represent a set of abilities, typically related to a Deadnaut's history.
- Investigation: Boost clue investigation speed and may increase knowledge
- Combat: Increases accuracy and reload speed
- Protection: Boost range of fields; increases field efficiency
- Detection: Increases sensor range and efficiency
- Intuition: Increases chance of revealing points of interest
- Stealth: Reduces chance of being detected by enemies
- Hacking: Increases hacking speed and firewall duration
- Cohesion: Increases stability in nearby Deadnauts
Flaws
Deadnauts may have flaws. These are special periodic events that may be triggered in certain circumstances.
- Short circuit: Can cause power drain in nearby Deadnauts
- Siphon: Knowledge seems to go astray sometimes
- Suspicion: Causes instability in another Deadnaut if left alone
- Bad vibes: So terribly unlikeable that other relationships in the vicinity can drop
- Porcelain: Can become heavily unstable after the most minor scratch
- Stimulated: Takes stims on a whim, whether needed or not
- Attention seeker: Nobody knows why, but enemies seem to zero in on their location
- Signal to noise: Inexplicably dampens signals periodically
- Selective deafness: May ignore orders
- Memory lapse: Sometimes forgets how to do something important
Any flaw effects are temporary. For example, Deadnaut relationships that have dropped because of a Bad Vibes event will return to normal after a short period.
Stability
All Deadnauts work well in some situations, and poorly in others. When they're in a preferred environment, they'll fight better, hack faster and generally perform better in everything they do.
Every Deadnaut has either a positive or negative preference for the following categories:
- Isolation: Prefers to work alone / prefers to work with others
- Death: Does not mind being around corpses / doesn't like being around death
- Collapse: Stable in destructive environments / panics if structural integrity of a room drops below 15%
- Confinement: Happy to work in confined spaces or tight corridors / prefers open spaces
- Combat: Motivated by recent combat encounters / does not like combat
You can alter these preferences during the Childhood phase when creating a new Deadnaut.
Stable formation
If a group of Deadnauts in close proximity are moderately or highly stable, then they'll receive a 'Stable formation' bonus. Deadnauts in a stable formation will move at the same speed and detect enemies faster. They can also receive a special bonus to damage if they concentrate their fire on a single enemy.
Relationships
Your Deadnauts start every campaign with a (mostly) fixed set of positive and negative relationships. Relationships can be influenced during character creation by choosing to make a Deadnaut likeable or unlikeable.
Relationships have a constant influence on Deadnauts. If a Deadnaut is near one or more people that he or she gets along with, then they will receive a boost to all skills. However, if Deadnauts don't get along, then they will receive a penalty.
There are several ways you can influence relationships:
- Create Deadnauts with likeable elements in their back stories
- Build characters with high grit or a heavy investment in the Cohesion skill. A cohesive group will reduce the skill penalty of negative relationships
- Pay close attention to who gets along with whom and separate them as needed. Remember: it may just be one Deadnaut that's causing the group to descend into a negative state
Penalties or bonuses are always temporary and do not persist between missions.
Helping out
Deadnauts that have a good relationship are more likely to help each other in combat. This behaviour persists as long as there is a positive relationship between two Deadnauts.
Cloning
When a Deadnaut dies, you can revive them after the mission. It can be expensive, and the cloning process isn't perfect, but it might just get you through the campaign.
To clone a Deadnaut, select 'Cloning' on the Communications screen, select your Deadnaut, and the press 'Clone'.
