Blob

Blob EXTRATERRESTRIAL STAFF Fullcore.png Blob Alt. Titles: None Access: None Difficulty: Very Hard Supervisors: Themselves Duties: Spread over the entire station Guides: This is it

One or more crewmembers have been infected by an organism that will cause them to turn into Blob Cores. They have 3-8 minutes to prepare themselves and find a nice spot where to burst, after which their objective is to expand across the station, destroying everything on their path, including walls, machinery and mobs. The crew must destroy every Blob Cores before they spread over a certain number of tiles (750 x Number-of-initial-blob-players). Whichever side reaches their objective first wins, and the round ends.

After the Blob has spread over 650 tiles, an intercept gets printed at every powered Communications Consoles on the station that contains the nuke code for the Vault's Nuclear Fission Explosive. If the nuke is detonated, the round ends with a draw.

Contents 1 Blob Guide 1.1 So I'm an infected human, how should I prepare? 1.2 Of Overminds and Cerebrates 1.3 What is this “Pulse” you talk about? 1.4 Blob HUD 1.5 Know your Blobs! 2 Guide to Fighting the Blob 2.1 Defcon Levels 2.2 Tools of the Trade 2.3 Risky Measures 2.4 A Quick Note On Intent 2.5 Non-Action Crewmates 2.5.1 Medbay 2.5.2 Cargo 2.5.3 Science 2.6 An Aside on Silicons 2.7 Gallery Blob Guide So I'm an infected human, how should I prepare?

A blob using restraint to maintain cover from lasers, with a labyrinth of maintenance walls reducing firing lines. More than anything, do NOT LEAVE THE STATION'S Z-LEVEL OR YOU WILL INSTANTLY LOSE. Your priority is to find a nice spot where to burst. If you know where you want to burst and think having enough time, you can try causing some mayhem indirectly depending on which accesses you have (by turning off APCs, destroying the Cargo computer, releasing plasma on the other side of the station, etc). Criteria for good locations are:

Somewhere remote and hidden, with a lot of place to expand, so the crew doesn't find about you before you get a few Nodes and Resource blobs down. Somewhere that cuts access to the Secure Armory, Cargo, or Engineering, so the crew cannot bring guns/emitters. Somewhere that isn't aligned with a corridor, so they cannot easily set up an emitter that goes straight to your core The best you can hope for is that the crew won't find you before the station gets under quarantine. But you will have to fight the crew sooner or later. When you start out, you will be in restraint mode. This allows you to 'hide' without smashing down walls as you build up an early bank and some modes. Alt click your core to toggle restraint (which decides whether or not your blobs will eat walls passively). Remember you can always choose to actively take out a wall even if in restraint mode. Use this early time to make use of the cover provided by r-walls so that you can remain stealthy.

Of Overminds and Cerebrates Once the infected players have bursted into Blob Cores, those players become “Blob Overminds” and can move around like an AI, except they can only move where there is blob. They also get to choose which “look” they want their blob to have. Currently, the only looks are “New”, and “Classic”. Overminds passively slowly expand blob around them, and have a few powers, most of which cost them blob points. Managing those points is the bread and butter of playing Blob.

Overminds start with 0 points, you gain:

1 point every second, thanks to your Core 1 point every time a Resource Blob that you control gets pulsed (each Resource Blob has a 4 second cooldown before they can get pulsed again) Without having to spend points you can:

Call your fellow overminds so they come to your position. Remove the blob on top of which you are standing. Useful to get a resource blob closer to your core. Jump to your Core. Jump to a random Blob Node. You can spend:

15 points by manually expanding blob over a tile. (CTRL+Click on a tile adjacent to blob to use this power. This will be your main fighting tool so get used to it.) 5 points to tell every single Blob Spore in a 35 tiles radius to come your location. (Middle Mouse Click on a tile to rally them there. Useful late-game when you really have a lot of them.) 5 points to turn a Normal Blob into a Strong Blob. (ALT+Click a blob to transform it is quicker.) 15 points to speak to every mob in the world. Don't waste points on taunts until you're close from victory. 30 points to create a Resource Blob. Which let you replenish your points more quickly. 15 points to create a Node Blob. Which is a source of pulse. 45 points to create a Factory Blob. Which will create Blob Spores (up to 2 at once per factory). and if you are a Blob Overmind

100 points to create a new Blob Core. The overminds created in such cores are called Cerebrates. The cost of new cores increases with each new one. The only difference between Overminds and Cerebrates is that only the Overminds can place new Blob Cores, so it's usually in the best interest of the Cerebrate to spend points and time protecting an Overmind over themselves, since the Overmind can replace them later (and if they're lucky, the game will select them again).

What is this “Pulse” you talk about? That is the secret behind blob expansion, as well as how the abilities of Factory and Resource blobs are triggered. Unlike let's say Supermatter, or Alien Weeds, blob doesn't spread at a constant rate. Instead, the expansion is powered by pulses, produced by:

Blob Cores Blob Nodes Overminds/Cerebrates Newblob core.gif Newblob node.gif Blob overmind.gif

Cores and Nodes emit an audible beat, and a visible flash, every time they pulse.

Every 1.5 second or so, these will produce 8 pulses at a time, which will then propagate from blob to blob. When a blob receives a pulse, it picks a direction and tries to expand. If there's already a blob there, it transmits the pulse instead. On top of powering expansion, pulses will:

Hurt every living mob covered by the pulsed blob Make a Resource Blob produce a point (it can only do so every 4 seconds) Make a Factory Blob produce a Blob Spore (it can only do so every 40 seconds, with a maximum of 2 spores per factory at a time) Pulses decay as they spread. Which is why turfs next to a Core/Node will get covered almost instantly, while turfs 10 tiles away from a core won't get covered before hours, without Overmind intervention.

TL;DR: just by moving yourself to a location, you will passively cause the blob to expand around you. By standing on top of a blob-covered enemy, you will damage them very quickly, usually killing them in a second or two. Also place Resources and Factories close to cores and nodes.

Pulses.gif

Blobs brighten a little when they pulse. Also notice how blobs automatically start spreading around the Overmind's cursor

Blob HUD BlobHud.png

Overmind Cursor Core HP Available Resources Special Blob Spawners Shortcuts to Special Blob Global Mind-Speech Regroup Spores Here Call other Overminds to your location Know your Blobs! Newblob core.png

Blob Core: This is the Overmind's heart, if destroyed the Overmind dies. An Overmind cannot have more than one core so he must protect it at all costs. Thankfully, it heals a bit of its damage every seconds, and also passively upgrades the adjacent blob tiles adjacent to Strong Blobs. Every time a new Blob Core is spawned (by an Overmind, or an Admin) a random ghost with Blob enabled in his preferences will become that core's Overmind. As a source of pulses, it will passively spread blob around itself. Has very high bomb resistance.

It costs 100 points to morph a blob into a Blob Core.Blob Cores must be at least 15 tiles apart.

Newblob blob.png

Normal Blob: The generic default kind of blob. Spread through pulses, or manually placed by Overminds.

It costs 15 points to place manually. You can do it quickly using CTRL+Click. Any wall/object/mob that stands where a blob tries to expand will get severly damaged/destroyed by the blob. As such, a good strategy for overminds is to bait crewmembers into coming closer, and let your points accumulate, so you can quickly surge and spam Blob placement orders over enemies. Attempting to place a new blob but failing will only cost 5 instead of 15 (You still need 15 points, but are reimbursed 10 in the event you didn't place a new blob).

An Overmind with 100 points can spawn over 6 of those blobs in one go.

Newblob strong.png

Strong Blob: A blob with 3.5 times more health than regular blobs. On top of that, it will heal every time it gets pulsed. It can only heal if it has less than 2/3rd of its health. It blocks air flow, fires, and has very high bomb resistance.

It costs 10 points to morph a blob into a Strong Blob. You can do it quickly using ALT+Click.

Newblob resource.png

Resource Blob: If Blob was a Starcraft race, those would be the drones mining resources. The first goal of any blob is to secure some space to spread and place new nodes, each with a resource blob nearby. Even though it can only be pulsed for points every 4 seconds, you want these as close from your Cores and Nodes as possible, ideally adjacent, at worst 3 tiles away. Never more.

Resource blobs only produce points for the Overmind who created them. If the Overmind who created them dies, they will turn dark and become inactive.

When in this state, any Overmind can just come stand above them to take control of them. Newblob resourceinactive.png

It costs 40 points to morph a blob into a Resource Blob. Resource Blobs must be at least 4 tiles apart.

Newblob node.png

Node Blob: Like the core, these are a source of pulse. Thus, they are automatically spreading the blob. It helps a lot to put one near where the crew is fighting, protected by some Strong Blobs, so you can passively expand from multiple sides at the same time, and more easily ambush them. Ideally every core should have a resource blob and a factory blob next to them.

It costs 60 points to morph a blob into a Node Blob. Node Blobs must be at least 5 tiles apart.

Newblob factory.png

Factory Blob: These will spawn Blob Spores when pulsed, with a 40 seconds cooldown. A single factory can sustain at most 2 spores at once. If the factory is destroyed, the spores it spawned immediately die. You should postpone making these until you've got a few resource blobs.

Blob spore.gif

Blob Spores are pretty weak themselves. Even an assistant armed with nothing but a crowbar can fend them off. They only become a threat when there are many of them. But they can make a good distraction.

It costs 60 points to morph a blob into a Factory Blob. Factory Blobs must be at least 7 tiles apart.

It costs 5 points to rally all the Blob Spores in a 35 tile radius to your location. Or to the location where you do a Middle Mouse Click.

Guide to Fighting the 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.

Since the last big update, Overminds get notified when blobs near their core get destroyed, their core gets damaged, or nodes/resources that they've placed have been destroyed. So keep that in mind when you're trying to be stealthy.

Defcon Levels Defcon 3: Activates when the Blob has control of 20% of the station. This automatically raises the station to Code Red if it wasn't at it already. This allows for combat modules to be chosen for cyborgs. Defcon 2: Activates when the Blob takes control of 30% of the station. All Cyborgs receive an optional firmware update that allows them to reset their modules. This permits mass transforming of cyborgs into combat borgs. The station can request a second ERT if one was requested already. Defcon 1: Activates when the blob takes control of 40% of the station. Access requirement on all airlocks is removed except for Permabrig and Bridge. Supplies can be requested at Communications Consoles every 5 minutes, which will be teleported to it. Supplies can be either medical, engineering or weaponry. 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: When it tries to expand over a tile, the Blob will deal high brute damage to any mob standing there. This damage can be mitigated by wearing armors with high melee damage protection, such as Riot armor. If you're crazy and decide to attack the blob with melee weapons, then at least attack from diagonals so the blob won't passively expand in your face. If the Overmind has noticed your shenanigans however, he will be two clicks away from sending you to a world of pain, so really, keep the melee as a last resort. Liberators: The Liberator is a specialized anti-blob laser gun available on the Ammolathe for 8000 iron, 6000 glass and 2000 plastic. The Liberator beams do reduced damage (10 burn) to humanoids while doing increased damage (40 burn) to blobs. When damaging a blob, extra damage can “splash” to a nearby blob piece, meaning one shot can take sometimes take out nearby blob pieces. These charge very fast and can fire 10 times before needing recharge, which makes them exceptional for the front lines. A liberator can kill a strong blob in 4 shots, so make use of them. Against non blob piece targets, such as blob spores or simplemobs, liberators do 25 damage. Laser weaponry/Plasma weaponry/Advanced Energy Guns: In the event liberators are unavailable, non-specialized energy weaponry can still do the job. 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. You'll be more effective if you can discharge a few guns in quick succession before going to recharge. 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. An Overmind with all his points can rush over 20 tiles in one fell swoop. 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. If R&D is really good, they'll make Advanced Energy Guns. Use them; their ability to automatically recharge is a lifesaver in this mode if the SMESes go down. 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. Unreliable at best. 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 meal out of him. Furthermore, if you throw the flashbang too soon, the blob will see it, and destroy it before it explodes. Flamethrowers: Handmade or printed from a hacked autolathe, the area control effect of a good flamethrower mix can destroy tons of blob walls at once. Keep in mind flamethrowers need O2 to work, so if the area is breached your plasma tanks will need some oxygen as well to burn properly (keep it above 50% plasma). 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. Stop trying to melee the blob, you fucks! DONT try to start PLASMA FIRES (see below) or BOMB the blob! Both of these strategies 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. Not to mention that you'll need a hardsuit as most of the area around the blob will now be exposed to space. 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.

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.

Paramedic: You're gonna be the guy to get people who inevitably get hurt by the blob, or crew. Remind people to max their sensors (which most wont anyway) and stay on the front line and give band-aids for boo-boos. If someone gets killed, you're the one who's gonna run them back to THE WILD RIDE for cloning and etc. Keep your hardsuit on, you're gonna need it sooner or later.

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: Grab a monkey, and go carefully stand it near the blob, then pull it away after it gets hit. This way the monkey will get infected with blob spores. When you've confirmed it with your health analyser, immediately take a blood sample, and if the monkey is dying, dispose of him near the blob so he doesn't burst in medbay. Then use your infected blood sample to produce a cure to the upcoming blob spore epidemy.

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. Using melee on a blob works as long as the overmind hasn't noticed you. Then you die.

Science R&D: GET TO RESEARCHING QUICK. soon the crew and security are going to come bother you for Advanced Energy Guns and armor. If instead of going to mine the Shaft Miners went to fight (and die) against the blob, go mine some uranium/gold/plasma/whatever else by reaching the asteroid through the Research Outpost. You will need Uranium for the AEGs, gold/plasma for the Plasma Cutters (so crewmembers have a way to deal damage to the blob while their AEGs recharge), and optionally diamond for laser and plasma weapons. You can acquire Sulphuric Acid at the research outpost as well, so don't bother Chemistry with it. You can also find a little bit of gold and silver in the Vault, so either break in there or get the AI to open it up.

Remember to ask either the Captain, the HoS, or the Warden to come unlock at least one of the AEG lockboxes if you don't have the opportunity to use an IED to open it. You can unlock the other ones by firing at them.

Armor-wise, you'll want to make Original Armor. It's fairly cheap and has the best melee resistance out of any of the armors you can make with the protolathes.

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. Even dev 100 bombs don't do shit to Blob Cores, Strong Blobs, or Blob Nodes, so cut that crap!

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 can be expensive and time-consuming to make, but a Gygax or Durand with a Solaris, an energy relay, and a repair drone can do a lot to even the odds in your favor.

Xenobiologist: Oil Slimes explosions and Orange Slimes napalm fires don't do shit to Blob Cores or Strong Blobs. The only remotely useful slime extracts would be Adamantine, or Bluespace (in case the blob core is in a telescience-restricted area) both of which take way too long to aquire for them to become useful in a regular blob round. And blob deals melee damage, so don't count on those biohazard suits to protect you.

Note: Now that blobs damage living mobs standing on top of them when they pulse, using telescience to get sent next to the blob core is suicide.

An Aside on Silicons Silicons gain the Quarantine law automatically when the Blob shows up, which means that while they'll still help the crew fight the blob, they'll also be hellbent on keeping everyone within the station and will use potentially lethal force if it means doing so to keep the crew within the station. If worst comes to worst, they will be entrusted with the code to detonate the nuke and will be ordered to do so by any means necessary. Expect external airlocks and the corridors that lead to the mining and research shuttles to be bolted and/or shocked, assuming the blob hasn't eaten them already.

Gallery Did the math.png

How much power can be produced by a Resource Blob in relation to its distance from a core.

Expanded Blob After Fifteen Hours.png

This is how far a Blob Core and a Blob Node can expand by themselves in 15 hours.