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. The crew must destroy the blob to prevent it from destroying a pre-determined amount of the station (350 x NumberOfBlobPlayers).

Mean Green Mother From Outer Space
In the blob game mode, players start off infected by the blob and have to choose a location for the blob's core via moving their body to that location. 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 a blob core. Sucks to be you! But you can make it suck less to be you by ensuring the easy survival of your future self.

Sabotage
Before you burst, it is valid to perform antag actions like a normal traitor to increase your chances of winning. If you can, try to remove weapons, sabotage the station, fuck up the AI or otherwise create a distraction for when you burst into a station-eating blob.

Sabotaging research or mining is a great way to protect yourself from a massive army of printed Laser cannons and X-ray lasers. You could deconstruct the entire research lab and hide it in your backpack, destroy the RND servers, or steal all the tank transfer valves.

Cutting the main power wires around Engineering is a great way to prevent Emitters from being used on you if Engineering is too stupid to figure out you cut the wires. They could still use the PACMAN generator to power SMES units or an emitter battery.

You could also destroy or otherwise disable telecomms. Eating the SMES units themselves is risky due to releasing the Singulo, however. Cut cameras with a screwdriver and wirecutter if there are any near the area you're going to attempt to burst in.

Genetics is another good target, as it results in less people being revived from the dead to fight you, meaning killing someone really counts.

Positioning
Positioning is extremely key to winning as a Blob. Improper positioning can result in you being barraged by emitters or quickly found and killed. Main hallways and maint areas too close to main hallways tend to be bad choices to burst in.

You should go position yourself near the place you want to be. You will receive warnings when you're close to bursting, but the exact time is random.

Make sure you're in a valid spot before you burst; you have to be on the station z-level, as well as on a floor tile, or the core will be unable to sustain itself and you will die!

The best place for a blob to choose a base is in an inaccessible area, decreasing the chance of being spotted and being contained. 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 telecomms or science.

Blob Chemicals
Blobs are made of chemicals; these affects their color of the blob bits, blobbernauts and all blob tiles, as well as their attacks:

Surviving the first few minutes
There should be ONE thing on your mind, that being placing a Resource Blob as close to your Core as possible, as soon as possible.

Then, create a Node Blob a short distance from your core and create another Resource Blob next to it. After you have two Resource Blobs, produce a Factory Blob, again preferably as close to your core as possible. Once that is done, save up for the Split Consciousness ability, and use it as soon as you can; once you use it, the node you placed will become another Blob Core, controlled by another Overmind with a different chemical to yours.

Blob Powers
Blobs attack and destroy the station by trying to place Normal Blobs on tiles, which destroys items and structures on the target tile, and applies chemical effects to humans and heavily damages other mobs, such as cyborgs. Hemming in targets by placing Normal Blobs behind them before attacking is extremely effective.

You, the Overmind, can also place special blob pieces or activate special functions and abilities. You must have enough Power to place those structures or activate those abilities, however.

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.

Defcon 1
There is a rare chance that Centcomm Administrators will okay the use of nuclear weaponry to destroy the blob if contacted via the Communications Console you must have captain level access to do so. If they give the okay they will send you the nuke code and you should sit and wait for your death knowing you failed the station.

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 engulfed and/or zombified by the blob. Don't let this happen. You will want to bring brute patches/bruise packs and probably burn patches/ointment 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. 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. What you'll need depends largely on what kind of blob you're dealing with (brute damage? tox?) and how competent the crew is (FRIENDLY FIRE OH GOD). You can either leave your pills/patches 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 useless (if you haven't found the blob by the time you get it, it's already ogre), 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, such as tox comp/filter or magical breathing, might be useful in blob fighting, but 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.