Intent
The intent selector allows you to choose how you're going to interact with the items and the environment around you. It has four modes: Help, Disarm, Grab, and Harm, in clockwise order from the top left. While this may seem very complicated you will be on help intent most of the time. These intents actually revolve around your what you do with your empty hand. That is because most items do what they do regardless of intent. Using a toolbox on someones head will bash it in, regardless of intent. The other intents have very specific use cases. For example, doing surgery on NOT help intent will have your guy botch it on purpose.
Help
Used for helpful and peaceful interactions, the help intent is likely the one you'll have selected the most often. Most items require you to have the help intent selected to use them, otherwise you'll wield them as an improvised weapon and bash things (and other people).
Clicking on another character with a most items in your hand will use it on them regardless of your current intent. This will always produce a message about you forcefully injecting/feeding them, and your target will see this message in big red letters on their screen, so be sure to warn them if you're actually trying to be helpful. Items with no helpful use will still be used to bash even while in help intent. Remember that some items require you to use them (Z key) while they're in your hand. Try that if you just bashed yourself by accident.
While you have the help intent active you'll allow others to push you aside when they walk into you, whilst with every other intent you'll block their movement. If two players with Help intent run into each other, they'll swap places instead of blocking each other's movement.
Clicking on someone with an empty hand and help intent is used for a few special interactions:
- If they're in crit, you'll perform CPR in an attempt to revive them. Make sure both of you have your mouths free (remove their mask by dragging their body onto yours)!
- If they're on the floor and not in crit, you'll help them back to their feet. Since being knocked down stops you from performing most actions, this can be a life saver.
- Otherwise, you'll give them a hug. Chose a different body part for a different friendly interaction. For example, hand for a handshake or head for headpats. :)
Disarm Intent
The Disarm intent is used to nonlethally disarm and incapacitate people. If you click on someone with an empty hand while on Disarm, you'll shove them.
Shoving someone pushes them one tile away from you. If, however, there is something in the way like:
- If the blocking tile has a table on it, they're pushed onto it paralyzed for 4 seconds.
- If the blocking tile has another human on it, it knocks them both down, the collateral victim for 1 second instead of 3 seconds.
- If the tile is blocked by solid objects in general, it knocks them down for 4 seconds. If target is already knocked down (from any source, including slipping), shoving them will disarm them.
You can not shove someone while standing on their tile. It's also important to note that these actions only work if you're clicking on the target with an empty hand, just as with all intents.
Grab Intent
The Grab intent allows you to, as it says, grab people. Can also be done with the Ctrl + Click hotkey. If you click on someone with an empty hand, you'll have a passive grab, which makes you pull people. Dragging prone people will slow you down. While on passive grab, clicking on the person once more upgrades it to an aggressive grab. The target can press "resist" to try to escape from an aggressive or above grab level. Once you have an aggressive grab, you can do the following:
- Throw the person (by enabling throwing, then clicking somewhere). Very fun!
- Fireman carry them if they're prone (by click dragging their sprite onto yours). Must be on garb intent for this.
- Click them again to slowly upgrade the grab to a level 3 neck grab. With neck grab you deal no damage, but it's harder for them to resist and get away. From here you can click them one last time to slowly upgrade the grab to level 4, strangling.
When strangling you deal suffocation damage to the target, and the target has the lowest chance (5? 20? -% per try) to successfully resist out of the grab. Failing to resist out of a grab will deal some stamina damage to you. While this is in the game killing people this way is mostly a RP tool. Corpses that only suffer from suffocation damage are comically easy to revive.
Tuterr, the Private Eye says: "If you're dragging someone's victim, or yours, it's best to switch to an aggressive grab so that you can lift them. This stops them from bleeding on the floor, which kills them over time and leaves a long trail of blood." |
Harm
This intent's purpose is to outright hurt and kill your target, dealing more damage than other intents, and is most useful when they're already on the ground. On standing targets you will attempt to punch them, which deals 1.5-15 stamina and 1-10 brute damage. The chance to miss a punch increases the more stamina and brute damage you have. Punching has a chance to knockdown the target for at least 4 seconds. The more brute and stamina damage the target has, the longer the target will be knocked down. If using harm intent on prone targets you will kick them, which deals 1.5-15 brute damage, with no chance to miss.
While it's possible to win with your bare hands what is overwhelmingly probable is that you will not. Basically, anything is better then empty hands. You can pick the area of the body you want to target on your HUD. Try to avoid areas covered by armor, and remember that attacking different body parts has extra effects:
- Hitting the head or the mouth (to a lesser effect) can knock your target down, especially when using blunt weapons.
- Hits to the eyes can blind, especially when using a screwdriver.
- Damaging the legs can cripple and slow down.
- Having harm intent enabled makes you unable to block.
- Using a lit Welding Tool with harm intent on an airlock will weld it shut. Don't forget to wear a welding mask or you may blind yourself!
- Using harm intent while holding a container with liquid in it will splash all of the contents on your target. Useful if you want to quickly empty the container, make the floor wet or pour acid on something (or someone).
- And way more!