Might be some more monke specific changes here. Review and fix, someone that can actually play changeling.
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EXTRATERRESTRIAL STAFF |
[ job_image ]
Changeling |
Access: Whatever your job is
Additional Access: Any place you or your victims had access to
Difficulty: Hard
Supervisors: The Syndicate, Tiger Cooperative
Duties: Drink people's DNA, fool people
Guides: This is it |
A changeling is a highly intelligent alien predator that is capable of altering their shape to flawlessly resemble a human. They are typically deployed in simple social groupings, although they maintain total autonomy and act individually. As a result of their expertise in infiltration, the Syndicate often hires Changelings (through connections with the Tiger Cooperative) to steal high-risk items from Nanotrasen, as well as discreetly assassinate key targets within their ranks. The Changeling hunts with its ability to synthesize deadly chemicals internally, adopt the form of it's past victims, and even directly alter its form to be more suited to the task at hand.
Important: Use alt+click or middle mouse button to sting someone with your currently active sting. You can sting someone up to 2 tiles away. Changelings, regardless of origin, are linked together through the hivemind (default :g), but they are not required to work together, and might even betray you, as absorbing your own kind gives a massive boost to your powers.
Now, you may notice the clusterfuck of HUD icons on the top of your screen. These are your abilities. Hover mouse over the icons to see their names.
First:
- Learn about your available abilities.
- Use them to steal DNA from people to help you accomplish your objectives.
The goal of many changelings is to acquire 5-7 DNA strains, for some unknown and alien reason. To do this, it must take ANY human, living or dead (even thrown away soulless bodies from genetics), and acquire their DNA.
DNA can be acquired in two ways:
- The DNA Extraction Sting, which costs 25 chemicals, is instant and does not give any alert to the target. You can get as many DNA samples as you want this way, but you can only transform into the last 7 of them.
- Absorbing the victim, which results in a husked body. Husks caused by burn damage can be unhusked and revived, but a husk made from this changeling absorb ability cannot by normal means. They would need to be podcloned or revived with magic. Does not bypass the limit of 7 stored disguises.
Acquiring DNA via absorbing requires you to be strangling your victim and clicking the absorb ability. You then have to go through three long progress bars as you stab and drain the victim with a proboscis.
- Absorbing a victim will slightly replenish your chemical storage, give you the target's DNA and let you readapt (refund) your abilites. You can only have one unused "readapt" stored at a time.
- Absorbing another changeling gives you all of its chemical storage and all its stored DNA genomes.
- Absorbing victims who have been husked via burns or space will not add to your total genome count.
The changeling can shift its appearance, making them look and sound exactly like a victim of which they have absorbed. This can be massive compromise in security, especially if command staff are absorbed and the changeling is able to imitate them.
Changelings can also, via their lesser form ability, transform into monkeys and do monkey things.
Transforming is subtle and does not give a message in chat, though an observant crewmember may notice that you're suddenly someone else entirely.
Changelings have the ability to 'kill' themselves, and appear dead for about a minute. After this period is over, the changeling can revive at will, fully healed of all injuries and illnesses. Both entering stasis and leaving it cost 15 chemicals, however you will still regenerate chemicals up to half your max capacity (37) even in death.
This makes them nigh-unkillable, as they can fully regenerate themselves even from death if their bodies are intact and they have enough chemicals. Spaced changelings may also be able to make it back on station given enough time. The best way to permanently deal with a changeling is to gib it or cremate it in the chapel.
Changelings may have the following objectives:
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Absorb 5-7 DNA stands: You just need to get DNA, easiest way is through your DNA extraction sting Sting extract.png.
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Extract more compatible genomes than any other Changeling.: Pretty self-explanatory, you can either spam DNA extract sting Sting extract.png or kill the other poor sap who gets this objective.
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Assassinate/Maroon a person: Kill some unlucky crewmember. This can be fulfilled via normal means or through some of your various abilities.
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Absorb another Changeling: You have to kill and then absorb Ling absorb hud.png another changeling.
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Steal an object: Steal a special or rare object from the station, you will be informed of what to steal.
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Escape alive: All changelings get an escape objective, to fulfill, be on the escape shuttle or a pod when they land at Central Command.
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Escape with identity: In addition to escaping alive, the changeling must have transformed to the target person and wear an ID card with the target's name on it to succeed.
Going Solo or Teaming Up
You are a solo antagonist, so it's completely up to you whether you want to kill or team up with any other changelings you may encounter.
The changeling possesses dangerous and alien abilities including precooked stingers, body augmentations and chemical enhancements, natural bio-camo, grotesque blades/tentacles/armor made of flesh and bone, AoE screech abilities, and more! Their stored chemicals regenerate quickly at a rough set rate of half a chemical per second.
Changelings start with 10 evolution points and can only get more by absorbing another changeling. The cost of abilities (if applicable) are listed below. By husking a lifeform, the changeling gains charge for an ability to reset their learned abilities and choose new ones, adapting to situations as they arise. This will reset their evolution points back to the starting 10. Absorbing other changelings may let you have more than 10 evolution points.
Changelings can store up to 7 DNA strands, acquiring them either by absorbing or DNA stinging people; if they acquire more, the oldest will be overwritten (but will still count for objectives).
Stinger abilities can be used up to two tiles away from a target, and only consume Chemicals on use. Only one sting ability can be prepared at a time.
Note that changelings are immune to each others' stings and are able to notice they've been stung. If you try to sting someone and they don't react, they might be one too!
Innate Abilities
All changelings start with these abilities by default and will never lose them, even when resetting their abilities.
All changelings start with these abilities by default and will never lose them, even when resetting their abilities.
[ innate abilities table ]
These abilities must be evolved through the Cellular Emporium, accessible through an action button in the upper left portion of the screen. Resetting abilities after absorbing someone will clear all of these abilities and must be re-evolved.
[ abilities evolved table ]
- As a changeling, the absolute best item for you to get is a wallet (From the crew quarters, in either cabin's personal closet, in the leather satchel.) It goes in your ID slot and holds up to 4 ids, all of which work for automatic access and none of which change your mouse over identity.
- Fleshmend is better suited for increased sustain during active combat. You can save a few points if you stick to using Reviving Stasis as your main source of healing outside of combat.
- Augmented Eyesight grants xray but no night vision. This can be solved easily by taking a pair of meson scanner goggles which will light up all tiles to a small degree. If they're reasearched, getting some Night Vision Goggles also work.
- If you journey to lavaland, have internals on at all times in case the atmosphere outside is BZ, even trace amounts in the air will drain your chemical count rapidly leaving you vulnerable for long periods of time.
- Only take a few abilities at round start! Once you take an ability, it is locked in unless you husk someone. Husking someone is time-consuming, leaves obvious evidence, sort of dickish, and if anyone interrupts you then you're boned. If you leave a few slots open, though, you can easily adapt to whatever shit you find yourself in.
- If you do choose to absorb someone though, the chameleon skin ability is very useful. You can use it to go invisible while you are absorbing them, then if anyone finds the body before you are finished with it they won't immediately yell "LINGS" on common, as well as making it dead easy to ambush them.
- You can revive yourself inside a Space Dragon and use an armblade to kill it from the inside out, the same is possible with a few other creatures.
- Transformation Sting is robust. Not only does it confuse the fuck out of people and is silent, but it's easier to hide in a forest than on an open plain. Make 555 of the guy you are changing into for more genomes. Transform the guy you are husking/impersonating into someone else, so you're the only one. Transform a ling who is caught if the scene is chaotic enough that he might escape. The possibilities are endless. ADDED: Wear some generic clothes from arrivals or locker room. Then if somebody's chasing you, run out of their line of sigh, quickly transform and run backwards.
- As a ling you are able to explore space, either staying as a regening corpse until you hit something or through a combination of fleshmend, engorged chem sacs, and a fire suit.
- There are edible clown corpses on the clown shuttle.
- You can of course find spaced people randomly, which is a great way to pick up an identity provided everyone doesn't know they were spaced.
- Or just use organic space suit
- Cryosting is very robust on people with insulation which makes it really effective in space, where they won't have a choice about staying dressed up in their suit.
- Mimic voice and subverted AI, or mimic voice and digital camo go a LONG way in completely getting the crew against each other.
- Keep in mind that if you space yourself and let your corpse husk from the burn damage you'll still be a husk when you get back up. You can clear this effect by transforming to another form and back again. You could also buy voice changing and play a zombie.
-- Blind sting + Lesser form = Freedom
-- Cryo Sting + Lesser form = Freedom
-- LSD Sting + Lesser form = Maybe freedom if it reaches the point of stamina damage knockouts.
-- Mute Sting + Cryo Sting + Blind Sting + Stun Prod, applied directly to forehead = easy, unrobust kill
- Flesh clothing created from disguising can be used as a test to see if you're a changeling, so just keep that in mind when using transform frequently. You can always use the "Drop Flesh Disguise" option in the transform radial to quickly remove all of the false clothing.
- Flesh clothing created from disguising cannot be removed by any means. This includes xenomorphs; if your disguise is wearing headgear that is immune to facehugger attacks, xenomorphs will be unable to infect you.
- The Bartender can mix a drink called Changeling Sting that accelerates the regeneration rate of changeling chemicals. It's gonna look suspicious as all hell if you order this, keep in mind. Try mixing it yourself when the bartender is absent.
- Don't be the person who goes ";g absorbing captain in maint" USE YOUR PERIODS (Ling chat is now gone, you can do this as much as you want)
- Changelings do not need heads, and brains are therefore vestigial. Don't debrain a changeling while the body walks out of the door behind you.
- As long as you can talk and you're within 1 tile of an intercom, you can type :i in front of what you say to say it over the intercom. Even when you're stunned and/or on the ground.
- If you get cryostung as a Security Officer, remove your armor and helmet. REMOVE THEM. Or else you will die. Sec armor has somehow some heat tampering properties, which means you won't heat up as much as you would normally be, and will consequently die of cold. Same goes if you are wearing an hardsuit/space protective gear/anything that could have thermal properties. If you get cryo'd, REMOVE THOSE THINGS ASAP.
- The bane of lings is N2O. None of their powers will help them. Unless they use internals.
- BZ gas is also a bane of lings, it drains their chemicals when they breathe it in. It is a huge pain for changelings to deal with if they haven't taken anatomic panacea to flush out the bz metabolites from their bloodstream. A good BZ/oxygen/N2O filled gas tank will incapacitate a ling indefinitely if you can slap on restraints too.
- Never fight a Changeling alone if you can help it. Unless they haven't taken any active combat abilities or Fleshmend (or if they're hilariously unrobust), chances are they will almost always win a melee confrontation. The best tactic is to get a buddy to stun the changeling while you handcuff/beat it to death and take it to be gibbed/cremated.
- Changeling flesh clothing is completely cosmetic/non-functional and cannot be removed. If during a strip-search you can't remove an article of clothing from a person, chances are they're a Changeling unless they're cursed in some way.
- A 100u potassium/100u water grenades can no longer gib changelings, but it is still possible to create grenades that can gib humans and lings alike, such as 30u meth grenades..
- Gibber machines are easy to construct, and if you leave one in a well trafficked area, its hard to take one out without any witnesses. Even then, they're easy to replace and somewhat expendable. A gibber with a tier 2 manipulator or above will also gib fully clothed people.
- You can also shuttlegib them. Simply place the changeling in the area in which a shuttle is about to land. Very few things can survive being hit by a ship coming out of a bluespace jump. The mining shuttles are particularly good for this, as they can be moved manually with a computer and their transit times are very short.
- In most circumstances, a ling absorbing someone renders them non-revivable, however if you have taken the blood of someone who has been absorbed (has to be done before they were absorbed), you can buy an exotic seeds crate from cargo and inject their blood into replica pod seeds, which you can proceed to grow into a podperson of the victim. They will only remember up to when the blood was taken, and will have to deal with the drawbacks of being a podperson.