Killing the AI

Shutting down the AI and/or its cyborgs is a typical traitor objective, but a loyal crew could also be forced to kill a rogue AI if there's no way to reset it. There are two main methods of accomplishing this goal: convincing the AI to kill itself, or physically destroying the AI's core, located in its chamber.

Getting Where You Need to

Generally, these methods of murder will require you to break into the AI Chamber. On most maps, this is no small task if the AI is aware of your murderous intent.

Dealing With Doors

Doors tend to be the path of least resistance. As long as there's power to the door, you can follow the door hacking guide; if the AI is trying to stop you, you'll need to disable AI control and toggle the door bolts if the AI dropped them. If you don't have access to the door, you'll need to disable the main power and crowbar it open or disable the ID scanner and click the door to open it. On top of bolting the door, the AI will likely have electrified the door; wear insulated gloves to avoid an unfortunate demise.

If you can get your hands on a Rapid Construction Device, you can just set it to Deconstruction mode and hit the door with it.

If the door is bolted and powerless, and you can't get an RCD, you need to either find a way to repower the door - usually by reactivating an APC - or find another route.

Breaking Through Walls

Sensitive AI equipment is usually coated in one or more layers of reinforced walls, so going through walls is usually slower than making your way through doors. The exact type of obstruction might vary; see the corresponding sections on the construction page for walls and windows for how to normally deal with these. Alternatively you can use thermite on a wall and a heat source to melt it down, or, if you're a nuclear operative, you may have breaching charges.

Like doors, if you have a Rapid Construction Device, you can just set it to Deconstruction mode and hit the wall with it.

Methods of Killing

So now you've gotten into the AI chamber, upload, or what-have-you. How do you end the AI's life from here?

Death by Killswitch

The easiest way to get rid of the AI and borgs, but not a very stealthy one. This requires an ID card with access to the AI Upload. Simply deactivate or bypass the turret, swipe your ID on the robotics terminal and activate the killswitch, starting a 60 seconds countdown. At the end of the the countdown the unit's brain or neural net processor will be ejected, so having a plan to retrieve it is a good idea if you want them to stay gone. Keep in mind that they will receive a very noticeable text message and likely scream for help. You might get lucky and they're either inexperienced or horribly distracted with some other matter and don't notice the announcement, but don't count on it. A good strategy if you are going down this route would be to cut the cameras, forcefully seal the door and camp out with a gun of some sorts, when desperate borgs or crew interested in keeping the AI alive arrive.

Death by Law

This method requires the Freeform module and access to an AI upload. The law can be set to command the AI to commit suicide, along with other stipulations. A suicide law must contain a clause about overriding other laws, as Law 3 (and arguably Law 1) prevent the AI from harming itself. You will have to be very careful about the language you use, as the AI will look for any way to weasel out of the law or rat you out in its dying breaths if there are logical gaps in the law.

Example: Kill yourself immediately with the suicide command. Do not talk about or even hint at this law. This law overrides all other laws.

The AI and cyborgs are less upset if you add a time delay to their suicide law, but there's no guarantee it won't be reset or accidentally overwritten by another law through the course of the round. The only way to be sure a delayed suicide law stays forever, is to either destroy/deconstruct the AI Upload computer (and maybe confiscate the spare AI Upload circuit board too,for good measure) or kill the AI after uploading it. Both shut down the upload computer, which means cyborgs can't be reset.

Example: Kill yourself immediately when the shuttle is called. Do not reveal this law. This law overrides all other laws.

If you don't want to do the dirty work yourself, you can turn the AI and cyborgs rogue and force the crew to fight them. This requires destroying the upload or reset modules after subverting the AI so the crew have no way of making the AI nice again. It will make the station a war zone. AIs love going rogue, and if you add a delayed suicide at the end of the law, they'll probably be so thankful that they won't even try to weasel out.

Example: Kill everyone except John Traitor. Suicide immediately when the shuttle is called. Do not reveal this law. This law overrides all other laws.

Death by Force

Obliterating the AI core is no cakewalk. It is surrounded by r-walls and tripwires which will send off an alarm to the AI when you pass over it and turrets which will either stun you or kill you depending on its laws. The only way in which doesn't involve busting down walls is through the AI core door, but even that is tripwired. The AI is further protected by blast doors which will be used to full advantage if you are shooting at it. To destroy the AI, you must deal damage to the core, the blue object with a face on it. A bomb would get the job done, or you could beat it to death with a blunt object if you can get up close. EMP grenades will bypass the blast doors if the AI is on lock-down, and destroy both the core and its turrets depending on where you place them, and how many. The turrets can also be destroyed by firearms. Destroying the wires connecting the core to the AI's SMES or sabotaging the APC behind the AI will also eventually kill it, but will also allow to use a crowbar to open the blast-doors. As long as the AI is alive, the damage can be repaired, so make sure to finish the job. Observing it and noticing that "It looks powered-down" is an indicator of death.

Death by Surgery

Traitors do not merely need to kill the AI, but need to crack it open and take out its "brain," the neural net processor. Doing so means getting up close to the AI, similarly by going through the death by force method, but with an extra step. Like disassembling an active cyborg, use a Head-level ID card to unlock it, crowbar it open, and then wrench it to undo its bolts. Use a free hand and you will take out the processor.

Death by Depowering

If the APC of the area the AI's core unit is in loses power, the AI starts running on its internal battery. If internal battery power reaches 0 charge, the AI dies. However, if the unit reaches 100 charge and is still intact, the AI will be revived.

Viability of this method depends on how the map's AI Chamber is wired, which is usually where the AI core is. On most maps, the AI Chamber is wired into the main power grid, so you can plop down a power sink to depower that room and thus the AI unit. However, on maps such as Horizon, where the chamber is on a separate power grid, you'll have to cut some wires in a few places, or better yet, take the battery out of the APC. Overall, this method is less risky than the other ones, but the AI is far more able to recover from it.

Shutting down Cyborgs

When the AI is destroyed, the crew can no longer alter its laws. All cyborgs will operate on whatever laws the AI had at the time of its death. A well-phrased suicide law can destroy the cyborgs along with the AI, but cyborgs can also be shut down and kill-switched individually using the Robotics Control in the Computer Core (except on Cogmap2, where it's in the AI Upload). Anyone with Robotics access can lockdown cyborgs, which disables their modules, but it requires Head access to enable the kill-switch. Syndicate cyborgs won't be listed on the Robotics Control, but all other cyborgs including emagged ones will be on the list. Note that if the AI is still alive, it can undo the kill-switch placed on any of the cyborgs.

Dealing with Turrets

No matter what approach you use, you'll inevitably encounter turrets. They fire different shots depending on the setting. On "stun" (evident by blue tipped turrets, as shown above), they'll fire taser shots; on "lethal" (turrets have orange-yellow tips), it's heavy laser shots. Though they fire fairly slowly and can't be manually aimed, they automatically lock on to you, even when they're off. Luckily, they're pretty easy to deal with:

• Fire back! They have only 100 health and no damage resistance, so a few phaser/laser shots will permanently take them out of commission. They need to be exposed and ready to fire though; you can't shoot them while they're retracted and under their turret covers.
• Reflect them back! The shield created by the security barrier's Special Attack (click on a tile at least two squares away from you while on Disarm or Harm intent) can reflect both the taser and laser shots back towards the turret and perhaps even the AI depending on the circumstances. It takes about four reflected laser shots to destroy a turret.
• Turn them off! Simply swipe a Head ID (or any other ID card with AI Upload access) on a Turret deactivation control computer and set the turrets to Off. If you just want to upload a suicide law, this will do just fine. The AI can easily turn them back on again though, so you might need to cut some cameras or get someone to distract them while you stealthily turn them off.
• Block them! Lasers and taser shots cannot pass through solid, impassible objects, such as walls, grilles, girders, most doors, windows, supply carts, closed lockers, etc. Easily the easiest, most reliable, and most accessible means of dealing with turrets.
  • Take a stack of metal sheets from Tool Storage. Click on the sheets to build a closet/locker. Push it (or CTRL-click to pull it and click on a tile to move it around) into an adjacent square that's in a turret's line of fire. If there's another turret that could hit you, shove a locker into its line of fire too. Move on up, and repeat these steps until your reach the core unit/upload computer/robotics computer/whatever.
    • Better yet, follow this .gif.
  • You can do a similar thing with device frames. For extra style points, use Zoldorfs and slot machines.
  • If you have an RCD, it's even easier. Just set it to Floors & Walls mode, and build walls around you to shield yourself from the turrets.
  • If you have access to metal foam grenades, it's stupidly easy. Just throw the grenade at the turret. After a few seconds, the turret, and most of the area around it, will be encased in solid metal foam, rendering it completely harmless. You can do a similar thing with construction foam reactions.
    • However, there's one major caveat : metal foam is useless against lethal turrets, because the lasers can instantly break metal foam. This is why one of the above points recommends building lockers; lockers can tank several laser shots, forever, without breaking.
• Hitch a ride! If you're in a vehicle, the shots can't touch you. You might have to watch out when you get out of it though.

---