Blob

Blob is a game mode in Secret where a large green blob infests the station and starts destroying everything its path, including hull, fixtures and creatures. Note that this differs from the blob random event, as a person is chosen to be infected with the blob and burst after a certain time, where the event picks a random location and ghost to play as the blob. The crew must destroy the blob until it destroys a pre-determined amount of the station (350 x NumberOfBlobPlayers). If the crew manage to destroy the blob core, the crew will win. But if the blob manages to spread to a predetermined size, the crew will lose.

Mean Green Mother From Outer Space

In the Blob game mode, the blob is controlled by a player, called The Overmind. A number of players are selected to play the blob. They are technically infected and have to choose a location for the blob's base in a random time limit. As time passes the player will get messages which will indicate when they are about to burst.

OH SHIT I'M A BLOB WHAT DO I DO

So you're infected with Blobitis. Sucks to be you! But you can make it suck less to be you by ensuring the easy survival of your future self.

If you are blob, you will receive periodic messages warning you that you are closer and closer to exploding. Wherever you are when you finally do explode is where you will start out as a blob. So make it good. The best place for a blob to choose a base is in an inaccessible area, decreasing the chance of being spotted and being contained; but be warned, it has to be on the station Z-level and on a floor, otherwise you will instantly lose. Think along the lines of good Xeno hiding spots. Public hallways are bad. Out-of-the-way places that require elevated access are good. Chokepoints are good. It can also be strategic to spawn in places that will cripple the crew once you destroy them, like the SMESes or telecoms (be sure not to do anything stupid, like releasing the singularity.) Make sure you're somewhere safe before you burst!

Before you burst, it is also valid to perform antag actions (within reason) like a normal traitor to increase your chances of winning. If you can, try to remove weapons, sabotage the station or create a distraction for when you burst into a station-eating blob.

Blobmunition

Blobs can attack players who are directly (not diagonally) adjacent to them by expanding onto their space. The blob can also spend resource tiles to place blob pieces. Blob pieces can expand into almost anything, including r-walls and even space, but note that space is much slower than onto a clear floor tile, which can be useful for slowing down the regeneration of the tiles around the blob core. Try hemming in crewmates with blobs and then attacking..

The overmind can also decide to place special blob pieces which have special functions and abilities. The overmind must have resource points to replace the normal blob pieces with special versions and to expand where the overmind desires. The blob core will produce resource points at a normal rate but to get more the overmind will have to place resource blobs next to it's core or a node, which acts like a core and gradually expands normal blob pieces outwards.

This is a list of all the blob types that the overmind can spend resource points on to buy and replace normal blob pieces with. There are limits on how close you can put the same special blob to each other -- for example, the resource blob cannot be near another resource blob.

Core Blob is the most important part of you, it is the brain of the blob and the heart. You cannot have more than one core so you must protect it at all costs, or you will die. It will regenerate health on its own, and you can keep track of its life from your HUD.

Normal Blob will expand your reach and allow you to upgrade into special blobs that perform certain functions.

Strong Blob is a strong and expensive blob which can take more damage. It is fireproof and can block air, use this to protect yourself from station fires.

Resource Blob is a blob which will collect more resources for you, try to build these earlier to get a strong income. It will benefit from being near your core or multiple nodes, by having an increased resource rate; put it alone and it won't create resources at all. Defending your resource nodes is important. Always replace them if they are taken down and invest in shield blobs to protect them. The more resource blobs you have, the harder it will be for the crew to reach your core.

Node Blob is a blob which will grow, like the core. Unlike the core it won't give you a small income, but it can power resource and factory blobs to increase their rate.

Factory Blob is a blob which will spawn blob spores which will attack nearby food (read: people.) Putting this nearby nodes and your core will increase the spawn rate; put it alone and it will not spawn any spores. Blob spores also have the chance to form Blob Zombies! See below.

ON MY HEAD ON MY HEAAAAAAAD ZOMBIE ZOMBIE ZOMBIE

If a blob spore generated by a factory blob comes into contact with a deceased human, it will form a blob zombie! The blob spore will take over the crew member's brain and run around and attack people until it is killed. Blob zombies are hardier than normal spores and do about five times their damage, and they even benefit from armor the crewmate might be wearing! Also they are completely horrifying.

Blob zombies can happen on their own, but you, the blob overmind, can speed up the process by rallying spores to the location of the corpses you've made.

Hotkeys

• CTRL+Click: Expand Blob
• ALT+Click: Create Shield Blob
• Middle Mouse Click: Rally Spores

KILL DAT FUKKEN BLOB

The Emergency Shuttle will not come during blob mode. Nor will the blob spare you or your precious station from a horrible death. Guess you better take it down fast, then.

Tools of the Trade

Most of your weapons are useless against blobs. The blob doesn't give a fuck about brute damage, nor is it able to be stunned. Generally speaking, what you will want is to do burn damage. (NOTE: This does NOT mean setting fire to everything!) Here are some tools at your disposal:

• Armor: The blob, in addition to expanding, can attack. Blobs do brute damage, so anything that protects against this, such as riot armor or shields, are helpful. Make sure to attack on the diagonals as much as possible as the blob can only attack in cardinal directions from its blob squares. Don't let yourself get surrounded!

• Welding tools: Cheap, readily available from YouTool machines (hack them for two more Upgraded Welding Tools) or the autolathe. Grab one and start burning away. Make a path towards a resource node and take it out. One guy with a welder isn't going to be able to breach the core, so don't try. It's a good idea to grab some Fuel Tanks to keep nearby so you can refuel quickly, but make sure your welder is OFF before refueling, and be sure the blob doesn't get close enough to absorb them. If science division is any good, they'll be passing out plasma cutters before long. They do the same damage as lit welders without any need to refuel, and have the added bonus of not setting plasma on fire in the case that the blob or some chucklefuck pops open a plasma canister. Replace your welder with a cutter ASAP if science starts making them.

• Laser weaponry: Available in the Armory, in certain heads of staff's quarters and through R&D or Cargo. Resist the temptation to just charge one gun then fire it off. If you're carrying the whole armory you'll be more effective if you have the ability to fire them all in series. Grab the chargers and wrench them a good distance from the blob so you can recharge, but make sure the blob doesn't eat them. If you're in Cargo, take the time to order as many guns as possible before you run off to fight. This is the one round type people will love you for running gun cargo.

• Emitters: Set them up as far away from the blob as you can while still striking the core. If the blob reaches them, they're gone. Three emitters side by side matched against the core is a one sided match.

• IEDs: The modest explosion is enough to rip a bit of the blob apart without destroying the floor and ruining atmos for people. Throw them in when you see weakness in the blob's defenses to tear open an attack point.

• Flashbangs: Two flashbangs will destroy all weak blobs in a large area, allowing people to rush in and ruin the special blob squares. If you don't warn people you're using these, they might get stunned and eaten by the blob. Give people a chance to clear the area and if your flashbang stuns someone, pull him out of there before the blob sees the opportunity to make a zombie out of him.

Once again: DO NOT USE FLAMETHROWERS OR PLASMA FIRES (see below). They are useless and will only make the rest of the crew die and hate you.

Risky Measures

(Do not use these unless shit has really hit the fan, or else you might be banned. When in doubt, adminhelp to see whether the Cuban Pete inferno you are about to unleash is kosher.)

• Large Plasma Fires: Large fires will eat away at a blob but will also make the area uninhabitable for people without fire suits. It will also only destroy normal blobs, so you'll need men with fire suits and laser guns to finish the job. If atmos isn't ruined yet this will make the crew hate you.

• Bombs: Bombs can destroy any piece of the blob except for the core proper, if the round's been dragging on and atmos is ruined, it's not a terrible idea provided you have something to hit the blob with AFTER there's a gaping bomb hole in the ground.

• Bags of Holding: If you can get within one or two squares of the blob core, creating a singularity there will almost certainly eat the blob core and win the game. DON'T DO THIS IF YOU CAN'T GET EXTREMELY CLOSE AS THERE'S NO PREDICTING LORD SINGULOTH. If things are going really bad, though, and you can still get reasonably close there's a chance this may be your only hope. Because there's no assurances here you might end up killing everybody. Ahelp before doing this to get the ok.

A Quick Note On Intent

As you know, your intent affects what you do when you run into people while moving. If you are on help intent, you walk through that person, and if you're on disarm intent, you'll push them out of the way or into the nearest object, like a wall, or a blob.

In other words: If you are fighting the blob, use help intent or else everybody will hate you.

Oh shit, zombies!

Zombies are hardy bastards that will take people down faster than a school of space carp. Prevention is the best measure, if anyone goes down, pull him out and away from the blob before he either dies or the blob blocks him off. If a zombie's smacking at you, the natural reaction might be to try running away but don't do that, running around in a panic is the last thing you should do. Zombies, like many NPC mobs, have laser-guided autoattacks and will relentlessly pursue and hit you until you're down, plus anyone trying to help you won't be able to get a single hit off the zombie if it's running around chasing you.

If you've got a welder in hand (Which you should if there's a blob.) and the zombie isn't armored, simply stand your ground and attack like mad with your lit welder. Even if you're unarmored, it will go down first unless you let it get a few free hits off before fighting back. If it's armored, though, you're fucked unless you have armor, a fire axe, or a buddy or two fighting alongside you.

Non-Action Crewmates

If you do not have access to the above weaponry, you should stay off the front lines unless you want to get killed and get in everyone's way. However! There are still things you can (and should) do!

Medbay

Blob mode is one of the few modes where Medbay is actually worth a damn. Here is what to do:

Medical Doctor: You are field medics. Put your HUD glasses on, grab a first-aid kit and heal people so they don't die. The worst thing in blob mode is someone with half the armory in their backpack dying and getting blob-engulfed so no one can retrieve them. Don't let this happen. The most useful first-aid kit is the standard white one; fire first-aid kits are useful if people are inevitably getting caught in lasers or getting hurt by inevitable plasma fire. Don't waste them on someone with 10 damage to one limb; use triage like a real doctor, you drunken ERPing fuck. DON'T FORGET THE INAPROVALINE SYRINGES! Blob produces a lot of critted people, and you don't want them dead before you figure out what to do with them. You can also drag people to cryo and dead people to cloning, but generally you'll be more useful on the field. If you do because no one else is, loot their bag so you don't end up removing half the guns and space suits from the field like so much kebab.

Chemist: Mass produce medicine. During Blob, if the crew is competent, you will run out of medikits very quickly, and Cargo is better off ordering other things. Bread and butter is bicaridine (for the damage the blob does), dermaline (for aforementioned lasers and plasma fire), inaprovaline (for critted people), ryetalin and possibly alkysine (for cloned people.) Don't bother making tricord/DD, it works too slow and you shouldn't need toxin healing anyway. You can either leave them on the counter for people to grab or take them to the battlezone yourself depending on what people are doing.

Geneticist: Clone the people who inevitably die. Always have someone cloning. LOOT THEIR FUCKING BAGS FOR WELDERS AND GUNS if no one else did, to give back out to people who need them; if anyone whines about GENETICS TAKING MAH GUNS they don't deserve to be in the fight. Most of your powers are of limited utility -- Hulk is only good if the blob is in a hard-to-reach place, X-ray is of limited utility, cold resistance can be useful if some chucklefuck has exposed the blob area to space but otherwise useless, and TK is fun but impractical.

CMO: You are NOT a field medic, let your slaves do that. Basically, your job is what the CMO's job should be but never is: coordinate doctors, be a head of staff, make sure Medbay proper is doing its job, and for God's sake keep your cat away from the blob. Contribute your first-aid kit to the cause, and consider contributing your hypospray to someone you trust who can actually use it.

Virologist: Kill yourself. (Some of the advanced good symptoms might be minorly useful in blob fighting, but again, if enough time has passed for you to get them the blob is either dead or too far gone to die, and why is cargo wasting points on a virus crate anyway?)

Cargo

Order emitters. Order fucking emitters. Don't assume the ones in Engineering Secure Storage will last, or even that anyone will remember to use them at all. Point seven emitters at a blob and it'll regret everything.

Order guns. Energy guns have their place, and are nice, but the station already has plenty. Combat shotguns may be better if people are good with them and print as many shells as you can in advance. Why? If you print lethal shells between Industrial Welders, combat shotguns don't have the downtime of energy guns. A constant feed of lethal shells makes for the ability to print, shoot while printing, clear shell, take new shell, feed old shell in, repeat. It makes the metal cost pretty much fuckall and does big damage. Besides that, you should already have enough laser guns on the station that unless some dipfuck loses them to the blob, you have barely enough chargers to charge them all at once. Make sure R&D gets a shotgun crate, see Science for details.

Order some goddamn metal and glass. Don't rely on mining to get back at all or on time. However...

Get those miners a hand teleporter and EVA suits. Calibrate the teleporter to a beacon in R&D. You're going to mass-drive the miners to the asteroid because fuck the quarantine. Laser cannons don't grow on trees. They can give a heads-up when they're sending a crate for the RD to re-test-fire so you don't lose mineral shipments. The primary importance is getting uranium and silver back, in which case if research and cargo is any good the round will end shortly. See Science for details.

SHIT TYRONE HACK THE FUCKING AUTOLATHES. You can make dozens of INDUSTRIAL WELDERS from a single sheet each of metal and glass. They're 70 metal, 60 glass, or something like that, with a single sheet of material providing 3750 of each. An Industrial Welder is the exact same size as a normal welder but holds 40 fuel and comes pre-fueled. They're so cheap to make that they're virtually disposable. In fact, R&D should bump up their materials research with the gold from the vault to make super matter bins, pico-manipulators, etc., so that you can lathe thing stupidly fast at the forward autolathe you fuckers better have made.

No seriously make a fucking extra autolathe near, but not up in the face of, the blob. It's easier to have an assistant constantly print new Industrial Welders than to refuel them and risk the blob popping a fuel tank.

Science

R&D: GET TO RESEARCHING QUICK. The xray laser gun is your holy grail. If you make even just one, the blob is in serious trouble. MORE THAN ONE AND YOU WIN THE BLOB MODE. PERIOD. IT'S DEAD, IT'S OVER, RIP BLOB. Completely inept at science? Absolutely no research done when the blob burst? Here's your dummies guide to getting xray lasers ASAP. First, get robotics to make three mech syringe guns. While those are being made, run into the maintenance tunnel just across from science and head to the solar array, deconstruct the SMES (Don't know how? Screwdriver, followed by crowbar.) and swipe its circuit board, leave the other junk behind, nobody's going to care about the solars when there's a blob currently eating the station, anyway. Research those. After that, take the intelicard from the RD's office and put it into the analyzer. If cargo is any good, you'll have a shotgun crate soon, drop all three in the analyzer as well. You now have the research for xray laser guns, rejoice.

NOW UPGRADE THAT PROTOLATHE. Don't know how? Just have it make a couple pico manipulators, then EJECT ALL THE SPARE MATERIAL FROM THE PROTOLATHE OR YOU'LL LOSE IT. Now, deconstruct it like you did the SMES to make it into a pile of parts and a machine frame. Stuff the circuit board back in, followed by the two pico manipulators you made, dump the two micro manipulators the machine had by default into the trash, replace the matter bins and beakers, then screwdriver it. Now you've got a protolathe that prints out everything at one fifth of the material cost.

Now if the miners aren't braindead, they should be hauling in some uranium and silver. Stuff those into the protolathe and start printing xray laser guns like crazy and make that blob regret coming to YOUR station. If you've got a little time to spare, steal xenobiology's plasma and research those until you can make plasma cutters, take the gold from the vault if you don't have any, and make those too.

Toxins: Make bombs. Six 3/7/14s. Slap them into package wrappers and LABEL THEM APPROPRIATELY SO THEY DON'T BOOM. Small Package (145.9 -- 30) hits the blob, etc. If things go ass up or you have a lot of weapons and EVA-capable people, a MANLY way to fight the blob is to bomb your way to the core and then just have everyone ready to shoot its core down. Other than that? DON'T USE THEM UNLESS THINGS ARE DESPERATE. Bombs are indiscriminate and breach the hull, so unless cargo ordered an emergency crate you're boned. (Cargo will probably not order an emergency crate.) Also, grab those heat canisters! Get some assholes into firesuits, take all the postburn CO2 you can, and release it behind the blob. As long as you don't breathe it, the suit protects you from arbitrary levels of heat and pressure so you should be just fine.

Roboticist: Once the medics empty their medkits onto belts, can make at least 6 medibots. Cargo can order emergency crates with floorbots and 2 medibots which will be useful when some fucker inevitably makes a hull breach. Cleanbots are useless here, don't waste the metal on that. Mechs aren't worth making. A durand used to be great, but then xray lasers came along and are much better. But if miners brought silver and the blob ate research, but not robotics? Make a durand, load it with a solaris and an energy relay and set it loose.

Xenobiologist: Go do a real job. Slimes take way too long and are way too random to be useful in time, although if you get some metal slimes early it could be mildly helpful, but it's better to just give your plasma to research.