Security Officer

SECURITY DEPARTMENT
Security Officer
Security Officer	Difficulty: Underappreciated (Hard) Requirements: Play 30 rounds, see here for details. Access Level: Security, Security Equipment, Brig, Firearms Carry Permit, Handling of Contraband Permit, Medical (but not Medical Equipment), Morgue, Research Sector, Chemical Lab (but not Toxins Research or Toxins Storage), Engineering, Engine Control Room, Mining Department, Cargo Bay (but not QM console), Kitchen, Bar, Hydroponics, Maintenance Additional Roleplay Access Level: None Supervisors: Head of Security, Captain Subordinates: Security Assistants Responsibilities: Protect the station, enforce Space Law, help people. Guides: Space Law, Contraband

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Your main base. Wow! Look how much budget security has!

Your main base. Wow! Look how much budget security has!

Your main base. Wow! Look how much budget security has!

Your main base. Wow! Look how much budget security has!

Your main base. Wow! Look how much budget security has!

Your main base. Wow! Look how much budget security has!

A Security Officer is an agent employed by Nanotrasen to act as law enforcement aboard stations. While many restrictions, laws, and customs surrounding due process may be relaxed in space, Security is still expected to act within the boundaries of their authority, answer to the station's chain of command, and generally avoid purposefully murdering innocents, brigging them forever, and being abusive.

Underappreciated and often understaffed, Security Officer is a demanding job that requires knowledge of not only many game systems, including combat, but also the culture and rules regarding Security. The wrong decisions can have huge consequences, and it's one of the few roles that gets more stressful with more people on the server. It's decidedly not a good job for players new to the game, and that is why it is timelocked. What's the payoff? Aside superficial things like from like swanky outfits and cool gear, a pivotal role in the flow--and fun--of the round.

A person who starts the round as a Security Officer cannot spawn as an antagonist, though the antagonist selection process happens before jobs are assigned, meaning that putting Security Officer in your preferred jobs will not preclude you from your fair chance at getting an antag round. Security Officers also start with mind protection health implants, which makes it harder (though not impossible) to mindhack them.

When Do I Get to Play Security Officer?

Security Officer is time-locked to 30 rounds participated, meaning you cannot join as Security Officer or spawn as one at roundstart until you have 30 complete/mostly complete rounds played. That means that for at least 30 separate rounds, you must have done one of the following:

• For both RP and non-RP servers, have connected to the server and declared ready before roundstart
• For the non-RP servers, joined the round after roundstart before the 40 minute mark while there was no shuttle en route
• For the RP servers, same as above but before the 60 minute mark.

The rounds can be non-consecutive, it doesn't matter which servers you spent those 30 rounds on since it's based on those played across all servers (i.e. you can spend those 30 across all the servers or just one server), and choosing to observe doesn't count towards that 30.

While you could just spend those 30 rounds by logging off at the 5 minute mark, not only does that look pretty suspicious to admins, but you're also ultimately doing a disservice to yourself. Those 30 rounds hinder what jobs you can get, but they also are supposed to help prepare you for it.

For one, those 30 rounds are a chance to get a good grasp of the controls. Not a comprehensive grasp, a comfortable grasp. By no means are you expected to know every single hotkey in every single control scheme by then, but hopefully you know enough that you can hold your own without smacking yourself with your own shoes. Security Officer asks you to use many different item interactions, particular those relating to intents during combat, and those 30 rounds are there to help establish some base familiarity with them.

More importantly, they're for you to get used to Goonstation's mechanics and its culture regarding Security. Part of it is controls, as previously discussed, but it's also what kind of antags there are, what they do, what kinds of crimes people commit, what is or isn't a crime, maybe even how Sec reacts to these crimes, especially which ones they actually prosecute. Again, you're not expected to be a walking encyclopedia, but hopefully by then you have a good idea of the things crew do vs the things antags do and ideally at least realize that executions/life sentences every time all the time are genuinely not fun for everyone.

In short, those 30 rounds give you space to learn the game before you tackle Security Officer, a job that requires you to know a lot more about the game than a typical newbie might. Plus, it's much easier and much less stressful to learn about controls, game mechanics, and community culture when you're not playing a job where everyone expects you to know all these things.

There's also a Security Assistant role, which is a great precursor and way to shadow Security Officers prior to being promoted yourself.

The Basics

Security is responsible for maintaining safety and order on the station and as such is one of the most important departments around and also the most overtasked. Due to the fact that you have the tools and legal support at your disposal to make any crew member's day a living hell, try not to overextend your authority. A good Security Officer is helpful, trustworthy, and ready to bravely defend the station from all kinds of evildoers.

As Security is responsible for rooting out antagonists and taking them down, how you play will directly affect how difficult the round is for the antagonist players. Lackadaisical Security is frankly pretty boring, so get out there and make the enemy get creative. Scan hacked airlocks for fingerprints. Try to figure out who bombed genetics and how, and go looking for them. Keep an eye out for people with concealed faces, ask people how they got blood on their hands--or better yet, scan them, check the database, and figure out who it came from. Quietly tail guys who seem suspicious. Go undercover as a Quartermaster and bust that Botanist for trying to sell weed. There's no need to be a hypercop every round, but it's definitely more fun to be a criminal when there are people out there who will actually bust you for it.

Some pushback from troublemakers is normal, but if you find yourself being excessively griefed just for being a Security Officer, adminhelp it using F1. If someone shouts "police brutality" or calls you a "fascist" or "pig", you should also adminhelp it, even if it's in jest, because drawing comparisons between the conduct of space mall cops in literal redshirts and actual, real-life police abuse is almost always unwarranted and often trivializes the issue.

Your Gear

Security gets a red-striped Security headset capable of normal comms and a secure Security channel. Type :g before the message to be sent to go through the secure channel. Command officers can coordinate Security activity and conduct oversight, and having a special channel that doesn't broadcast to every person on the station can be quite helpful.

You start with armor, SecHUD shades, and a flash, a security whistle, and some handcuffs in a Security pouch in your pocket. You also get a requisition token, and you should go to Security and insert it into a Security Weapons Vendor as soon as possible, for this is how you get your main tools for subduing suspects.

Not every situation requires use of force or an arrest, but for the ones that do, subdue the suspect(s) with your stun weapons, using minimum necessary force. Once the suspect is downed, use handcuffs to restrain them. Once you start pulling a cuffed suspect (no need to use Grab intent), they are incapable of running away, but bumping into someone else may break the hold. The Port-A-Brig is the safest way to transport prisoners, but has a three second delay while you put someone into it.

The Security Secords computer has records for every member of the crew. If you log in and set someone to Arrest, they will be pursued by Officer Beepsky and other Securitrons. Setting someone to Arrest or Detain also sends a PDA alert to everyone on the Security team, letting your colleagues know who to look out for. Since you spawn wearing Security HUDs, you can immediately recognize people set to Arrest or Detain; they'll have an icon with two exclamation points () and handcuffs icon (), respectively. However, suspects can fool the SecHUDs, if they disguise themselves well.

Your PDA lets Securitrons alert you when someone has been detained, and lets you issue fines and tickets to offenders who don't merit arrest. You can also check the Security Records on your PDA while you're on patrol and check the reasons you, Beepsky, or others on your team flagged someone. The Secmate Scanner lets you pull up someone's Security Record simply by clicking on them with your PDA (if you make the app your current scanner mode). Finally, your PDA comes equipped with a Security Crisis Alert function that places a blue button in the top left corner of your HUD. Pressing this sends an alert to all other security PDAs with your location to get a team of helpers to back you up. It can be the difference between living and dying in confrontations with dangerous suspects or environments.

Sometimes players might sell contraband through custom vending machines. To get to the bottom of who the machine is registered to, use a screwdriver to open the access panel and read the associated card. You can also seek the help of Engineers to deconstruct the machine if it contains particularly hazardous contents for sale. You might also want the Detective to run forensics on who used the machine so you can track down anyone who might possess a dangerous item or substance.

Your strongest tools aren't always tasers, either. Think things through, be cautious, and rely on your teammates.

Your Weapons

Most of the weapons Security has at its disposal are non-lethal energy weapons that drain stamina. If you drain someone to below zero stamina, they will drop the items they're holding and fall to the floor, knocked out for a certain duration depending on the weapon. If you don't, you disorient the person, causing them to move erratically, be slowed down, and tilt rather amusingly.

Every officer starts with a flash in their starting pouch. It's a melee weapon with a random amount of uses that can stun one person next to you if they aren't blind and don't have sunglasses or a welding helmet. Using it in-hand can disorient people in small, 5x5 area around you, making them easier to stun. You can check the bulb status by unscrewing the flash and pulsing it. If the bulb burns out, you can't recharge or replace it. You need to get a new flash at a SecTech.

The Security Weapons Vendor and You

You can redeem your requisition token at a Security Weapons Vendor for a loadout with some real workhorses:

• Each loadout starts with a stun baton, a melee weapon with 8 uses before it needs to be recharged. It has to be on to stun someone. When you click on a tile at least two tiles away from you while on Disarm intent, you launch a spark that causes disorientation. When hitting someone with an active stun baton on the Harm intent, you will instead stun yourself! If dropped, the baton can easily be turned against you, so handle carefully.
• Each loadout also has a barrier. When activated, it passively reduces damage from melee and ranged attacks by a significant amount. It can also make a stationary reflective wall if you stand still and click on a tile far away on Disarm or Harm intent. When you bash someone with it, it might knock them back or onto the floor.
• You also usually get an second weapon, a gun, with every loadout, except for the "Just a Baton" one. Tip: Using it on someone next to you while you're on Harm or Disarm intent will make you shoot them point-blank (Help will just make you try to hit them with the gun, Grab will make you try to hold them at gunpoint and take them as a human shield.) Point-blanks always hit (because you'd be defying physics if you miss at point-blank), but otherwise have no additional effects.
  • Standard gives a taser, a ranged stun weapon that fires a single stun projectile. You'll need to land two successive single shots to stun somebody completely, and with the default battery, it can fire 8 shots before needing to be recharged. Successive shots stun for longer. Simple and a true classic.
  • Offense grants a Sancai wave gun, another ranged stun gun, this time with three distinct settings. Inversion wave has up to 8 shots and starts out weak, but stuns longer the farther it's traveled, transverse has up to 5 and goes through all obstacles but is short-ranged, and reflection has up to 8 and becomes more powerful whenever it ricochets off something. Requires strategic spacing but can be powerful.
  • Control gives a taser shotgun. This ranged stun weapon requires two hands to wield and can fire up to 20 single stun "pellets" that are somewhat weak but very cheap to fire, or up to 8 spread shots of 3 stun projectiles that can down someone if they all hit.
  • Suppression gives a taser SMG. The full-auto mode fires weak stun projectiles as long as you hold the mouse down (rather than as fast as you can click), while the burst-fire mode fires two shots that together are stronger than a single standard taser shot.
  • Just a Baton is actually more than just a baton, because it also comes with stun baton rounds, which is basically what would happen if you tried to shove a stun baton into a 40mm shell. You're meant to use these with the riot launcher.

Each loadout comes with a Security Belt for holding all your weapons and a special pinpointer for the weapons that come with the loadout, so they can be relocated if lost, e.g. when you are killed and revived, but your corpse has been looted. It's recommended to keep this in Security or a safe. It's usually a bad idea to keep it on your person, because whoever loots your gear from you usually also swipes the pinpointer too.

Stun batons, wave guns, tasers, and taser shotguns all must be recharged at either a recharger or the security weapon recharger rack when depleted. You can Examine the gun to see its current battery capacity and cost for the current shot mode.

You should also redeem your utility credits. Since your token gives you two utility credits, and each one costs just one utility credit, so you basically can choose two options from the Utility category. Here's a quick rundown:

• Morphine Autoinjectors: When used, these injectors give you a small dose of morphine, a sedative that negates the slowed movement associated with damage and can knockout at high doses. The idea is to use this when you're hurt and then escape to Medbay to recuperate. You get four of 'em. They can also be used on others to reduce the buffs from stimulants and meth.
• Robust Donuts: These donuts are full of chems that significantly reduce stuns and can help dying people live to see treatment. You get two of them, and you can take up to 6 bites out of each (more than a regular donut), so they;'re basically 12 uses. Give a bite to yourself or a dying comrade.
• Flashbang Grenades: Upon detonation, flashbangs emit a loud noise and blinding light that stuns people. Obviously, you can throw these like in any video game with flashbangs, but you can also stuff them into a riot launcher, which causes them to detonate on impact instead of on timer. They cause permanent eye and ear damage if you're not careful.
• Forensic Scanner: Use it on clothing, tools, weapons, blood stains, people, etc. to find forensic evidence including fingerprints, blood DNA, bullet calibers, and gunshot residue. Be mindful of the ways someone might fake DNA evidence and gunshot residue. While your PDA can do forensics, this scanner is much more convenient as it has a search function.
• Night Vision SecHUD Goggles: These googles make you see better in the dark but cause bright lights from flashes, portable flashers, and similar to stun longer and damage your eyes. They also show the arrest statuses of people you encounter, similarly to a pair of Security HUD glasses. Normally you have to unlock the Armory to get night vision (and it just has regular night vision goggles, i.e. no SecHUD), so this can be good if a Head of Security isn't around to give you one.
• 40mm Paint Marker Rounds: These 40mm paint marker rounds go into the riot launcher, so it's obviously useless if you're not using that. If you are, these rounds coat the person in bright orange paint and make them track orange footprints for half a minute, greatly making them more visible and thus easier to chase. It is possible to wash it off. There's only five of them though, so use them wisely.
• RecordTrak Scanner: This Security RecordTrak device lets you change the Security Records of people when you use it.

Each token also gives an ammo credit. There are just two options, and both of them are small power cells, which are used in stun batons and other energy-based weapons. You can click on a cell with a weapon (or vice versa) to swap out the cell (similar to swapping magazines for kinetic gun) in order to give it an upgrade/sidegrade or replenish it when it's running empty.

• Disruptor Power Cell: A 100 PU cell that recharges 5 PU every few seconds, cutting down on time spent waiting at rechargers. Use it on energy-based weapons that are used infrequently, like your stun baton. The lower capacity doesn't hurt too bad if you're not gonna use it often, and the self-recharge, while slow, means that when you do use have to use it, you'll be at or near full capacity.
• Spare Power Cell: A 200 PU cell, same as the one used in stun batons and other weapons from the Security Weapons vendor. Unlike the disruptor cell, it doesn't recharge on its own, but it boasts better capacity, making it the superior choice for when you're in the heat of battle and need a quick recharge.

You might also notice there's an "Assistant" option in the Security Weapons Vendor. It has nothing to do with Staff Assistants and doesn't spawn you a virtual buddy or anything. Rather, this is a loadout only Security Assistants can buy. (Besides, everything in it can already be found around Security.)

Other Weapons

In addition, you have many other weapons at your disposal.

• The riot launcher launches smoke grenades that blur people's vision and make them cough, dropping whatever they're holding. The grenade hurts if it hits someone directly and can embed shrapnel, so be careful.
• In addition to more specialized equipment, the Armory contains contains riot shotguns that stun and do knockback and moderate damage to unarmored personnel and pulse rifles that throw people quite far or have an EMP mode for rogue Cyborgs.
  • By the default, only the Head of Security can enter the Armory. However, the Head of Security, the Captain (via their Authentication Disk), or three fellow Security personnel with Security Equipment access (i.e. you and the Captain and Nanotrasen Security Consultant, but not the Detective or a Security Assistant) can use the Armory Authorization computer to allow all Security members to access the Armory. You could also simply ask the Head of Security to grab what you need.

Tickets to the Prom

Ticketing people is an important and amusing punishment. To ticket people, you have two options. First, you can use the Ticket Master app on your PDA; to access the app, boot up your PDA, go to file browser, and click Ticket Master. You have two further options: Ticket or Fine. Second, you can use the Security TicketWriter 2000, which is usually lying somewhere around Security; the ticketing process is similar to the one for Ticket Master, except it only does tickets, not fines.

Ticketing is regarded as a mild punishment, fit for clowns and drunks alike. It's also fit for inanimate objects, if you feel like ticketing the janitor's mop for slipping you instead of the janitor who used it. Feel free to give whatever reason you feel like. When you issue a ticket, the machine outputs a piece of paper labeled "Official Caution - [recipient's name]", so you have something to give/throw to them afterwards.

Fining is a step further, invoking angry reactions of various degrees. Unlike ticketing, this requires the full name (i.e: Joe McScrubs) of the recipient, as it will drain the bank account of those you fine. Obviously you can't fine George the dog as he doesn't have a bank account. Since you are a Security Officer, you can issue fines of 500 credits or less without needing approval; fines larger than that require manual confirmation from the PDA of a Head of Security, Captain, Nanotrasen Security Consultant, or Head of Personnel. (Your Detective and Security Assistant coworkers need approval for fines of any amount, so consider this a privilege.) Fining someone sends the recipient a PDA message about it, once it's been approved (i.e. they'll know they've been fined), and outputs a paper "Official Fine Notification" you can throw at them.

What's cool about this is that a list of all tickets and fines made during the shift is shown to all players at round end (except for those who have "Auto-open end-of-round ticket summary" disabled in their profile), so other people on the server can know how you ticketed the Clown for crimes against comedy. What's even cooler about this is that both tickets and fines are logged on Goonhub. Be creative!

Due Process

As a Security Officer, you may find yourself having to make arrests several times per round. If you're quick and efficient, this is a painless process. If you're not, it can turn into a giant headache for everyone involved.

Processing badguys:

• Detain the suspect with minimum force.
• Handcuff the suspect and restrain them by pulling or grabbing them. If their crime requires a brig time, bring them into the office, preferably via Port-a-Brig.
• In the office, tell them you're going to search them before doing so. Empty their pockets and remove their backpack. Look through everything. Be sure to open containers inside containers, such as boxes inside backpacks. Be sure to replace all items in the containers when you're done. Don't strip them in the hallways.
• If you need to brig them, you can feed them into the little chute next to the brig. Remember to set the timer!

Security roles (Security Officer, Detective, Security Assistant, Nanotrasen Security Consultant) and their superiors (HoS, HoP, Captain) can read the Miranda warning to suspects by using the Recite Miranda Rights verb or *miranda emote. The wording is also customizable via Set Miranda Rights.

A Security Officer should try to choose the least severe yet appropriate punishment. For most instances, time in the Brig and confiscation of any contraband should suffice. However, ff a traitor is a lethal and immediate threat to the crew, lethal force may apply. This is not to say that you can execute anyone you want, however. If applicable, you should ALWAYS get authorization for any lethal force from a Head of Security (or, if the Head of Security is unavailable, the captain may suffice). LISTEN TO THE HEAD OF SECURITY ABOVE ALL OTHER HEADS OF STAFF.

Good Officer Checklist

A Security Officer should always be able to:

• Justify any lives you need to take during duty. This applies between you and your colleagues and Heads, the general populace, and lastly to the admins if they are looking into something.
• Attempt to respond to things happening. You are a good guy after all, do your job and change how people view Security.
• Keep your cool! This is the biggest thing; losing your cool and having access to all those weapons will quickly go south.
• Mind your surroundings. Don't strip a guy in front of everyone else, do it where troublemakers can't disrupt you and potentially become a bigger threat than the guy you caught.
• Be careful not to leave prisoners trapped forever. Most people do not need to be imprisoned for more than 5 minutes. If you need to keep someone locked away longer, be able to defend your judgment.
• Finally, be fun! If you're a good and robust cop, you have nothing to fear from the bad guys and would come out on top anyway right?

"Alright so who can I arrest?"

Use common sense, if it is a crime in life then it's a crime in this video game. Examples of crimes would include breaking and entering, assault, and theft. Use your best judgement when arresting criminals and don't get discouraged if they whine (or imply that you're breaking the rules, as the case may be). Space Law is a helpful guideline, but you may find yourself running up against situations that don't neatly fit into it. For instance, if the chaplain throws holy water in an otherwise peaceful guy's face and reveals him to be a vampire, which one do you arrest?

In these instances, it can be helpful to listen to other Officers and get feedback on how to prioritize and approach tricky situations. In the event you truly don't know, seeking mentor feedback with F3 can allow you to rely on the knowledge of other experienced players.

How to Deal with Threats

A good Security Officer should know that there's more enemies to the station than just the criminals. Be sure to prioritize. For example if there's a space yeti eating the entire Medical staff, it'd probably better to deal with that first than the wizard spawning THC golems and debutting people, and perhaps better to deal with that than the guy who's breaking windows. Keep in mind though that with changelings, wizards, syndicate operatives and other horribly overpowering shit, you should seek the help of the crew, you're not alone in this fight, chief.

Name	Threat	Mugshot	Appearance	Potential Crime	Notes
Garbage Security	Medium		Looks a lot like you!	Treating prisoners like animals. Being a bloodthirsty nutjob. Possibly an actual antagonist who got their hands on security gear.	Weed bad security out ASAP, as one bad egg spoils the bunch. It doesn't have to be sec either; the Captain, HoP, Detective or any acting sec may also be awful. Power corrupts. Could also be mindhacked if they've somehow lost their mind protection implant. People can also get security access from the HoP/HoS/Captain so don't assume they couldn't be an antagonist!
Rogue Silicons	Medium		Takes the shape of a once friendly metallic buddy or an ominous AI.	Not following their laws, murdering, bolting and shocking doors, calling you meatbag repeatedly.	Just like humans, try to use non-lethal force: rogue AIs and borgs can be fixed by resetting their laws. This does not apply to emagged borgs or Syndicate robots! Be nice to them and get them a new frame or reset their laws rather than eliminate them.
Psycho Killer	High		Covered in the blood of innocents, boasting about how they murdered someone. Possibly saying they're not a traitor.	Murdering suspected antags, stealing security items, hurting innocents in the process. Likely using stolen traitor gear, possibly because they're a traitor; confirm it maybe.	Sometimes called vigilantes. It's often hard to distinguish between who's a traitor and who's a non-traitor just abusing traitor gear. Use some evidence and keep in mind a traitor isn't obligated to tell you they're a traitor, and as long as you actually have a good reason to believe they deserve execution no admin would stop you.
Traitor	High		Frequently well disguised, a dead give-away is their nefarious tools.	Murder. Arson. Grievous bodily harm. You name it, they've done it.	It's not particularly necessary to always murder a traitor, especially if they're just goofing around. However, don't feel obligated to let them off the hook easy. Feel free to confiscate their contraband and arrest them for crimes. Be creative with your punishments. See below for examples of certain situations.
Spy Thief	High		Frequently well-disguised, as a good spy should be. Their spy gear is a dead giveaway.	Grand theft. Breaking and entering. Being an unholy lovechild of traitors and greyshirts.	Spy Thieves can make potentially useful vigilantes/informants. A spy thief's PDA displays a list of items and machines to steal and their drop-off location, which means it's essentially a list of potential locations to stake out for other spy thieves and people to bodyguard. Only spy thieves can turn in the bounties. That means you can't lock the perp up and do the bounties yourself.
Vampire	High		Likes to fly around as a bat. Their eerily grey-skinned minions are sure signs of their presence.	Stealing blood. Noise Pollution with their screams. Causing hypothermia with their pet ghost bats.	Vampires weaknesses are the Chapel, holy water and Space (even if they're shielding themselves from the cold!) A vampire can and will resist your stuns, albeit at the cost of health.
Arcfiend	High		Usually disguised as any ordinary crewmember. Their Jamming Field ability can reveal their true nature, giving an eerie yellow glow around them. Can also be found travelling through the station's cables.	Sabotage. Absorbing Genetics' power so they can never work again. Posession of lightning-like abilities. Electrical burns of the first degree.	Also known as energy vampires. These guys can usually be found around high-powered equipment such as APC's and SMES units. Telltale signs of an Arcfiend being out and about are the sudden loss of power within specific areas along with broken APC's. Don't try boxing them in by welding a door either, as they can easily pass right through it if a wire is nearby. Consider acquiring SMES Human if the station has the resources for it.
Wraith	High		Invisible mostly. Tangible if they chose to be for the spooks or crossed salt lines like an idiot. Possessed items are a dead giveaway, such as the lone frosted donut in security yelling for the blood of innocents.	Invasion of privacy. Weaponizing station property. Flagrant abuse of spooking.	The wraith will strike when people are weakest, often targeting security HQ and medbay. They'll turn your baton and beepsky against you. Laying salt lines is your only defense, so consider visiting chemistry or the bar. Keep corpses out of sight, whether it be in a coffin, body-bag or a crate as they'll absorb it or worse.
Gangs	High		Usually wearing a silly hat/mask and jumpsuit, which is their gang uniform. Often carrying unique guns and other weapons exclusively used by gangsters, such as Grease Guns and ratsticks.	Murder. Vandalism. Bad fashion sense.	They pack a lot of firepower, but they don't have a lot of stuns. If you can keep them from claiming gang crates and loot bags, you can significantly reduce the amount of guns they can get. Gang tags are very difficult to clean up, so it's often better to target those who made them. Beware, some gangsters wear light armor, and the ones with Webleys shoot armor-piercing bullets.
Wizard	Very High		Comes in blue, red, black, green, and purple. May or may not have a sick-ass beard.	Flinging spells. Conjuring mayhem. Being hipster.	Wizards are a mixed bag. Be sure to study what spells they are using before making the assault. Wizards are just wrinkly dorks without their robes, and severely weakened if you manage to disarm them! Consider recruiting the ignoble chaplain to your cause if things get too tough.
Revolutionary	Very High		Sporting the trophies of dead Heads of Staff and fellow officers. Often wandering with lots of friends.	Conspiracy. High treason. Light and noise pollution via their flashes.	Kill, brig, and/or Debris Field/Adventure Zone-exile the Head (Revolutionaries), and the body will die. A brainwashed underling can be brought back to your cause with incredible violence, electropack torture, or a counter-revolutionary implant, but to fully stamp out the revolution, you'll need time, effort, and the entire crew working together.
Changeling	Very High		So deadly as they can look like anyone, but their twisted fleshy abomination form makes no mistake what they are.	Making husks. Making people hallucinate dragons and monkeys. Looking ugly as heck.	Do not go alone when fighting a changeling. They thrive in 1-on-1 fights. They're susceptible to fire. Unless you're armed to the teeth and have a death-wish, it's advised to run against an abomination. They are vulnerable when returning back to their human state.
Blob	Very High		Gelatinous goop of varying color.	Consuming all in its path. Clogging up disposals. Making the station look even worse than usual.	No reasoning with or arresting these things! Blobs are a station-ending threat, and so most of the staff will likely be fighting it while it consumes their departments and crewmates. Consider asking Scientists and Engineers for help; they can mass-produce weapons that can stack the odds in the crew's favor. Blobs are weak to a few things -- especially fire -- but they also have ways to shore up or mitigate those weaknesses, and you'll need to be mindful of the tools they have at their disposal in order to combat them effectively. See their wiki page for more details.
Nuclear Operative	Very High		Have a very obvious name, stating their affiliation. Often sporting red. May be pulling a nuclear bomb through the hallways depending on how competent the crew is.	Blowing up absolutely everything you can imagine to hell and back, including the entire station.	Arm yourselves as much as you can. Some might consider arresting an operative valiant, others a stupid affair.
Other Threats	???		Zombies, Werewolves, Hunters or Critters to name but a few.	All of (or none of) the above.	Threats don't have to be actual players. NPCs such as critters can just be equally bad. And asteroids. Or even the occasional omnipresent admin. Anything that is a danger to the crew should be noted. Don't forget: In space, nobody can hear you scream.

There are other aspects to consider, too. More often than not, the situation won't be as clear-cut, requiring security officers to think on their feet. You may find yourself pondering as to what extent the law should be applied, for instance, in which case these scenarios might provide useful orientation:

• Traitor A is doing a gimmick, which doesn't really involve killing people unless in self defense. Traitor A's gimmick can be considered fun by most of the crew. You may want to either play along, provided doing so would make it more fun for everyone involved, or arrest the guy and run a little gimmick on your own (such as a public trial). Since traitor A is most likely still breaking the law and/or in possession of contraband, it's up to your discretion what to do, depending on circumstances.

• Traitor B is just trying to complete his objectives in a stealthy way. B is killing people when necessary, or if they're an assassination target, but he isn't going on a rampage. In this case, B should be arrested and have his gear confiscated. Arresting may cut the traitor's fun short, but it may also make it more fun for B as he has another chance to try and succeed. It'd also give the traitor ways to come up with plans for whatever may happen if he gets caught. If B tries to gun down security, well, he can't expect you not to fight back! Consult with the HoS or captain and if they decide execution is the best way to handle this sort of traitor, that's fine! A public execution may be more fun for everyone than tossing them naked out an airlock, though, and gives a quick-thinking traitor the potential to escape.

• Traitor C is going on a rampage! He is killing everyone he sees without compromise. You should do everything in your power to stop C; even lethal force may very well be justifiable in these kind of situations. While this cuts short the traitor's fun, mindless rampages aren't that exciting for the most part and tend to be less fun for the majority of players, too.

That said, these can only be guidelines and nothing more. Keep a clear head, use your best judgement and don't be afraid to ask colleagues or other players for advice!

Additional Resources

So you want to be a better Security Officer. Maybe you're fresh meat just trying to survive your first few traumatic Sec rounds. Maybe you're an old veteran who went on leave and wants to get back into the saddle. Maybe you're just an okay officer but want to be more than just okay. In any case, you definitely want to improve. Besides this guide, what other resources do you have?

• Other players! - It's been said previously, and it can't be said enough. Security is an inherently social role, and in any given scenario, no two officers will respond the same way. You might not agree with said responses, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse, but being exposed to different ones will help you shape your own.
  • OOC - Don't be afraid to talk to people in the in-game Out-of-Character chat. After a round's ended, and the details are still fresh on people's minds, it's a perfect time to ask all the pressing questions you had last round that couldn't be answered, like "Where did all those energy guns come from? Everyone I tried to arrest shot me with them." or "Why did Pubby McScrubs keep trying to break into Sec after we brigged him?"
  • Discord - Don't be afraid to visit the official Discord channel either, and it's better too since you're not restricted to the confines of the game and BYOND. You can ask and discuss all sorts of things here, from tactics ("How do I deal with a wizard?" or "What's a barrier good for?") to appropriate punishments ("What should I do about people who constantly break into Sec but don't otherwise seem to be antags?") to pressing moral/personal quandaries ("I feel like I was too rough on those revs.")
  • Goonstation Forums - Don't be afraid to check the out forums, even if you're just lurking and aren't actually planning on registering. Since it's a forum, you can naturally expect more detailed answers and explanations to your questions. Speaking of the forum...
• How to Security Officer 202? - Don't be put off by the fact that the thread's from 2016, the general ideas (especially on communication) and most of the tactics still matter; besides, the last few pages have far more recent responses. Includes lots and lots of specific tactics, like placing floor flashers, swapping out cells, and keeping your PDA window open.
• Space Law - As you might expect from a page called "Space Law", it describes veeery general guidelines for punishments, but also details appropriate use of force, arresting procedures, and the importance of communication.
• Nanotrasen Space Law - They give you this book for a reason when you're a Security Assistant. It focuses on the general philosophy of Security and touches on a few things new Security Officers are often confused about, such as whether it's okay to use Syndicate Items and other antag gear (hint: it's not).

Crew Objectives

As a loyal crew member, you can sometimes be assigned some strictly optional objectives to keep yourself busy while you wait for something to happen. Security Officers can expect to see the following:

Bring at least one antagonist back to CentCom in handcuffs for interrogation. You must accompany them on the escape shuttle.
Obviously there are some antags you can't cuff, but it's self-explanatory. The antagonist can be alive, or dead, and you don't have to wait in the shuttle until the game confirms whether or not you met this objective, since the game checks if you're anywhere on the CentCom level rather than just the shuttle. Some people like to keep the perp grabbed or in the Port-a-Brig during shuttle transit, but this strictly isn't necessary, though sometimes a good idea nevertheless.

Completing this objective for the first time gives you the medal "Dead or alive, you're coming with me", which has a reward that lets you turn a modern security jumpsuit into an old-school version from way back.

Keep Monsieur Stirstir brigged but also make sure that he comes to absolutely no harm.
Monsieur Stirstir is not a player, but an NPC monkey that wears the orange jumpsuit and beret. Stirstir can still have a virus or organ damage or whatever; this objective only checks if he has any BRUTE, BURN, TOX, or OXY. In addition, Stirstir doesn't need to be cuffed or whatever, just in the Brig area, in any of the prison cells.

Stirstir already spawns in the Brig at roundstart, so you just need to keep him there. But that is sometimes easier said than done because, occasionally, antags get an objective to free him!

Completing this objective for the first time gives you the "Monkey Duty" medal. In addition to the usual Sense of Satisfaction and Accomplishment you normally get from medals, the reward for the medal turns any hat into a snazzy beret of a random color, so you can have a vibrant fashion sense like Monsieur Stirstir.

Gallery

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