Staff Assistant

A gentleman's guide to the staff assistant, Volume one.

Written and published by Brycen Neckbeardly.

This guide was written in tribute of those great spacemen that once graced the station and have since left us. May they forever remain in our hearts.

How can I get anything done when I have almost no access to any important areas and nobody trusts me?!

Fret not, you can do plenty and in some cases even more than certain non-assistant positions.

First off, maintenance is an extremely undervalued access level and logging out is a massive waste of its potential. Maintenance literally composes about half of the current station and you should frequent the place as not only does it exist for literally that reason but also it is much easier, but by no means easy, to get away with anything you want in maintenance.

As an assistant you must also be willing and capable of taking advantage of the items around you to satisfy your plans. An example would be the often large collection of corpses strewn about the station, more often than not when you find these corpses their backpacks and IDs are long gone but it is rare, in this era, to find them without a jumpsuit. Jumpsuits are powerful tools to anyone that knows how to use them properly. Fooling one crew member can be more influential than killing fifty. Not that you should be killing anyone that isn't someone you're positive is playing an antagonist role. I'm serious, don't do it.

Okay, I understand how I would go about doing something but what should I do and why?

If you're playing as an assistant it's either because you've been terrible and you were job-banned from everything else or you like the freedom that comes with the job. Your job, unofficially, is to keep the round interesting by performing mildly traitorous acts. Some examples may be found below but the remember that even the sky isn't your limit so long as you're not going about being a huge jerk. (Author's note : The more complex you are in your deviousness the better and at no point should you feel discouraged to manipulate the station's crew into doing what you actually want. I.E. You find that some "good" security officer has been hunting for traitors since minute one and you decide you're going to play the role of red herring.)

1. Rob from the rich and everyone else : Stealing is, in moderate doses, not discouraged by administrators so long as you're only really a jerk to idiots and you don't seriously injure or worse to someone that isn't shit then you should feel free to try and become the master thief of your station. Keep in mind that aside from security you will also have to deal with the misbegotten few that haven't followed you on a similar path and crew that do have jobs as they will very quickly take any chance they get to attack, kill or detain you in the name of "justice" or much more comically "to stop your griefing". Please note that being a thief is not going around mugging everyone in sight and taking things you have no use for to justify beating the shit out of people, that is called being shit. Don't do it.

2. Genetics isn't doing its job! : Make use of those naked corpses around the station, more often than not they are left to rot or burn away in the halls. Try to create an interesting situation by stockpiling them in maintenance and behold as nearly everyone stops ignoring the corpses that could've been easily cloned by them and immediately declare you to be a changeling and begin attacking you. Why would you want this? For starters this is a good way of getting the crew to start cloning and taking more care of corpses. Also it's just far more fun and useful than asking genetics to do its job as more often than not they will not even respond to when asked, where as the entire crew may be up in arms to take and try to clone every corpse if someone even utters the word changeling.

3. Gang wars : So you're playing Gang wars? Well, I suggest you play the role of a turn-coat in order to keep the match fun. Having half of the station join a single gang isn't interesting and you should feel bad if you've ever done that. Standard procedures should be followed but don't feel afraid to make runs at gang members foolish enough to wander alone, after all, they will likely be beaten to death if they are stupid enough to do that in the first place.

Essential items

You've got your plan, you've got determination and you've got cunning. Now all you need to know is what you should be greedily looking around for.

Item	Image	Description
Crowbar		This little puppy is used in nearly everything constructing or breaking on station. Don't be fooled into using it in combat. It can also be used to open unpowered doors, firelocks and even lets you move girders.
Welder		Must be activated to use and has limited fuel supply. An active welder will ignite plasma and break lightbulbs. The welder is an extremely important device to the aspiring assistant, there are so many threats but certainly one of the largest is the AI deciding to take an action against you. When that happens you can weld your way out of where ever you happen to be locked. It will cause you to go blind if you use it without a welding mask enough.
Wirecutters		Used in wiring and much more importantly camera deactivation. If you're being chased by anything more often than not the next thing you will hear is "AI, locate..." keep this around and you will make yourself harder to find. The wirecutters can be used to disable cameras in a single click on the fly, be wary of others watching you do this as more often than not you will be attacked for disabling cameras.
Emergency Oxygen Tank	File:Emergencytank.png	Works like a regular gas tank, but is small enough to fit on the belt slot. You have a chance of getting this in the box found in your backpack at round start and it is very useful. Setting the output to twenty-one will last you the entire round but it is usually detrimental to wear it constantly as opposed to other devices. You can prepare and activate this and your breath mask in less than ten clicks.
Welding Mask		When the mask is down it functions like a pair of shades while also protecting you from the arc flash of a welder, on top of all of that it provides the same blunt protection of a helmet and the ability to go unknown like a gas-mask. The second best piece of head-wear in the game. It is a wonder these aren't used more often.
Fire Extinguisher	File:Fireextinguisher.png	As the name suggests it will put out fires but this is one of those wonder items that can do many things. If you're versed in chemistry you can empty one and fill it with something a tad more potent. Of all the common station items it does nearly the best damage per hit. Activating it in space will propel you in the direction opposite where you clicked. They can be found in the often ignored emergency tool boxes, you know, the red ones.
Medkit		Important for healing yourself and others. Should you want to save someone inject them with inaprovaline and tug them to a safe spot with air and warmth. If said someone is being saved simply because of you accidentally knocking them into critical condition due to complicated circumstances you can do the same as before but leave them and not deal with the possibility of healing them just for them to retaliate in error. Always remember to apologize politely and kindly for your mistake. It goes without saying that beating people and then healing them for kicks gets you a ban vacation.

I want bragging rights

If you want brag about how robust you are you can try and complete these trivial objectives on top of your official unofficial job.

Have your butt removed somehow by the end of the round
Robotics can help here. Just tell the Roboticist you want your butt as a hat and they'll usually oblige you quickly.

End the round with a non-Assistant ID registered to you
Go bother the Head of Personnel or the Captain for a job change (or Head of Security if they're both missing). Otherwise, search for their corpses and hunt down their very likely already looted IDs.

Be wearing at least one piece of clown clothing at the end of the round Just go open crates in Crew Quarters until you find one with the clown suit in it, and put it on. The shoes will make you slip occasionally and be stunned for a good few seconds, they are better used on certain others than worn on yourself. Keep in mind said others will not be able to remove the shoes if they can't use their hands for whatever reason.

A Traitorous Assistant: The Underdog Insurgent

Essentially act as you would normally while playing assistant but now you have the clearance to kill as you see fit and you have access to one, or more, means to an end.

---