Greetings young bloodsucker! Time to learn the ropes of your new found ability to suck blood. Lets go over the basics:
Being a creature of the night means many things. We will first go over what kills you and what to avoid:
The stars will harm you, even in a space suit. Stay out of space unless you want to burn alive.
Holy or blessed things, including:
These will hamper your abilities in addition to damaging you. Prolonged exposure to these will cause a hidden counter called “smite” to tick up, slowly destroying your body. At low levels you'll feel sick, as it goes up you'll start vomiting up usable blood for your spells and having seizures, and at very high levels your skin boils off and you erupt into holy flame, destroying your body! The risk of smiting increases as you're exposed to holy things, goes down slowly over time without holy exposure, and can be reset by sleeping in a coffin.
Coffins are excluded, as they actually heal you.
Do not, under any circumstances, pick up a null rod. It will damage you and render you unable to cast spells for a short duration. People carrying a null rod appear with a small cross on your HuD. As you grow stronger in power, the null rod effects will be more and more dangerous.
Be sure to use your thralls or other methods to deal with null rod carriers!
If you use an area-of-effect spell (such as glare, or the scream), it will instead only affect you if one of your targets has the rod, and none of your vampiric powers will work on the null rod carrier regardless of blood level.
Blood is important for you. It allows you to use your powers and gain new ones, and with enough of it, cheat death itself. Sucking blood from a living person causes blood loss (duh) and some minor brute damage. Total usable blood is found on your HUD as U:[Usable blood] in a grey translucent square, your total blood being under that. A human has about 195u total of potable blood and only 100u of it is considered “usable” for the purpose of activating powers, meaning you need at least 7 blood “donors” to reach maximum power. Only half of the blood consumed becomes potable or usable blood, a quarter if the target is dead and full if the vampire has matured.
All of the blood you suck goes toward your total blood count, which adds up to grant you more powers. Blood from dead bodies does not go to usable blood but instead goes towards total blood, which is why you don't get all of a live victim's blood as usable. Blood from catatonic people (monkey men and players who have ghosted while alive) and braindead people is potable.
You will get nutrition from this blood at a rate of 1/4th the blood you drink (400u blood equal 100 nutrition, for reference, a roundstart human spawns with 400 nutrition). You cannot get fat this way unless the victim has cheesy gloop or corn oil in their system.
It can be done while wearing any mask on your face, even one that is glued on to you, but your victim must be mask-less (unless mature vampire) and you can't bite and suck blood while you're restrained or pax-implanted.
You will continue to suck blood until you move away from the victim.
If you toggle the “Sleight of Teeth” power on you will only do covert biting, which takes 30 seconds to perform (15 seconds if mature) and drains blood half as fast, but makes no sound and does not warn your victim. If either you or your victim move during the preparation period, the process fails and must be restarted. You must do the same biting process as with standard biting.
You can consume blood in a reagent container which adds to your active and total blood pool, but only if the blood has the same DNA as a currently active player (even if dead). Consuming blood this way only gives you 50% of the power (active and total) it would if consumed directly (100% if mature and 25% if the player is currently unconscious or dead). If a player gets cloned, the now soulless body no longer provides valid blood.
Vampiric Power Description Unlocks at… Cost to use Sleight of Teeth Enables stealthy bloodsucking, which makes no noticeable sound nor warns the victim, but takes 30s to complete (15s if mature) and consumes blood half as fast. Start Toggle Rejuvenate Unstuns you and removes the stun's effects. Start Free Glare You emit a blinding flash that stuns people adjacent or otherwise near you very shortly. The closer someone is, the “longer” the stun. Good to steal items such as guns that people are holding. Does not silence the target. Cannot be done while blindfolded. Start Free Shapeshift Transforms you into your true form, which will hide your presence from cameras and obfuscate your identity, though it is obvious what you are to any onlooker. Chance to become Terrified if you witness a vampire shapeshifting into their true form. Start Free Hypnotize Hypnotizes a victim into a trance causing them to stop making noise and moving. Great for cuffing and removing headsets. Takes a short moment. Cannot be done while blindfolded. Start 10 blood Vampiric Vision Free thermals and nightvision. 100 blood Passive Cloak of darkness Makes you invisible like a chameleon in the dark. Stepping into light only makes you semi-transparent, enough to be easily noticeable. 150 blood Toggle Diseased Touch Stealthily infects a victim you can touch with a disease that causes massive amounts of toxin damage over a long period of time. Shuts down major organs and kills the target fast. If the victim survives somehow, it's very likely he'll be permanently crippled. Can be cured through conventional methods, but it'll be a while before they have an effect. 150 blood 100 blood Summon Bats Spawns two swarms of bats. They are like Space Carp without the knockdown chance and move very fast. They can deal massive damage in numbers of 5+. Leave them in swarms in maint. 200 blood 75 blood Chiroptean Screech A great power to use when you are losing a fight against a large group. Sounds a loud screech that knocks those in the area down and deafens them for a long time. Shatters windows and lightbulbs, be careful not to do it near space. That is, unless you have a hardsuit and magboots… You can screech even if there are no targets present, for easy glass sabotaging. 200 blood 30 blood Shadow Step Jumps to a nearby dark spot. Great for escapes. If you attempt it in full light, nothing happens. Removes handcuffs but not straitjackets, and cannot be done while buckled or caged. 250 blood 20 blood Mist Form The Wizard spell Ethereal Jaunt, but leaves bats where you disappear. Allows you to disappear and move through walls. Removes handcuffs but not straitjackets, and cannot be done while buckled or caged. 300 blood Free, but requires 30 useable blood Enthrall Enslaves someone to your will entirely. Gives them a special icon above their head and yours denoting status. Exposure to holy water and/or bibles will de-thrall them, however. 300 blood 150 blood Insanity You partially breach into the spirit realm, letting you sometimes hear the ramblings of the dead. Whether this is useful or not for you is up to the whims of the deceased and your own ability to interpret their messages. 400 blood Passive Charisma Your charismatic abilities awaken, increasing the duration of both Glare and Hypnotize, as well as lowering the cool down time for Enthrall and allowing you to enthrall loyalty-implanted members. 450 blood Passive Maturity Upgrades you to X-ray vision, holy things will harm you 5 times as badly, you suck blood twice as fast and you no longer have to remove your target's mask to suck blood. 450 blood Passive Undying Lord of the Night Grants you the ability to rejuvenate after death, and allows you to spawn a Vampire cloak that can hold a small assortment of items and gives moderate protection against Bullets, Fire, and Magic. Improves Cloak of Darkness. 666 blood Passive