Space Phoenix

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The Space Phoenix, or Ice Phoenix, is a spacefaring phoenix native to the Frontier. It happened to just be chilling (haha, get it?) in space when Space Station 13 came along, disturbing its natural habitat and warming up the phoenix's environment with irradiated heat. The phoenix is mad, and seeks to cool the station down to hopefully scare it off without needing to leave its home.

The phoenix is a random event antag spawned through the Intruder Alert random event

The Nest

As a Space Phoenix, starting out, you spawn in an ice nest. This nest offers walls for protection against pod attacks should it come to it, as well as some direct benefits. For every dead human or critter, up to 5 of each, that you bring into the nest, you gain increased out of combat health regeneration in space, increasing your recovery rate and ability to harass the station. Additionally, should you collect 5 dead humans, you are granted a one-time revive, which happens when you die. This revival is not granted if you are gibbed, so be careful in that regard. The space trail that you leave will also be colored pink/purple while you have the revive.

Phoenix Passives

The phoenix has a couple of notable passive perks that help it survive in space, and are useful for dealing with attackers

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- Has 200 health - Only has two methods of attacking. A scratch attack, and a fire ice feather ability. Fire ice feather is its primary attack (feather does damage to people/pods, but not things like windows) - Can be targeted by pod seeking missiles - Is spacefaring and can travel across z levels - Starts off in an ice nest in a random location in space - Chills dealt by the ice phoenix are reduced by up to 75% by cold protection - Patting ice phoenix with your hand chills you and deals a bit of burn damage - Those chilled by the ice phoenix receive overlays on them that show their temperature, which can be used for the abilities to know when to use Windchill and Touch of Death - The phoenix leaves behind a particle trail in space. It will be colored purple if it has a revive ready.

Your Gear

In addition to the unique gear described below, you also get an emergency oxygen tank (AKA a mini tank), in case your hunting ground lacks a breathable atmosphere. To ensure that you won't have to endure the dishonour of being captured alive by mere prey, you are also implanted with a microbomb implant, which will cause a small explosion upon death. It still works if you use *succumb.

If you didn't spawn with any of these, use the Order hunting gear ability to retrieve your items.

Name	Icon	Description
Space Cowboy Boots		Fashionable. But also useful: they work like galoshes in that they prevent you from slipping on blood, gibs, and other wet surfaces. Ice, space lube, and organic super lubricant can still get you though. Cannot be melted by acid.
Trophy Belt		Stores the skulls (and other souvenirs) of your victims. The trophy belt works like any other belt and so can hold tiny and small items, not just skulls. Unlike other belts, however, this includes normal-sized items (e.g. guns) as well!
Hunter's Plasma Rifle		Similar to the plasma rifle in surplus crates and the like, except it also destroys itself if you die. The Hunter's plasma rifle does 35 BURN, before any damage reduction, and it recharges automatically, so you aren't dependent on rechargers.
Hunter Mask		While you can breathe the station/ship air just fine without a mask, this item still has a host of other benefits. It lets you spot people behind walls and expands your vision in the dark, and functions as a voice changer, though since you "snarl" every sentence, disguise capability is limited. It also counts for internals, so you can breathe using air tanks without sacrificing your mask's benefits. If you die, the mask (harmlessly) self-destructs. Finally, acids such as fluorosulfuric acid and sulfuric acid cannot melt this.
Hunter Suit		Just like in the 1989 Predator film. The plating and bandoleers are just aesthetic, but it is worth nothing that fluorosulfuric acid and sulfuric acid cannot melt this. That doesn't mean it'll protect you from those acids, just that they won't be destroyed by them. If you see a human wearing this, they probably picked it up from a Novelty Clothing Crate.
Hunting Spear		Potent melee weapon, good for throwing. Attacking with it in melee causes up to 28 BRUTE and some bleeding, but it's more impressive when thrown, where it does up to 35 BRUTE and knocks them down for 6 seconds, on top of the same amount of bleeding. If you die, it destroys itself, preventing your prey from taking it as a trophy.
Hunter Cloaking Device		Similar to the cloaking device used by Traitors and their ilk, with the added function of self-destructing upon your death. Keep the restrictions of the cloaking device in mind. Interactions with adjacent tiles, e.g. firing your gun, trying to pry open a door, picking up stuff and throwing stuff (e.g. the spear) etc. all discrupt the cloak. Pulling people around doesn't. If you are on the same tile, you can attack somebody without decloaking. Be careful not to hit yourself!

Hunter Traits

In addition to your gear, you also have some innate attributes that come with being a Hunter. It's worth noting that the ability to pry doors and boost to punching are tied specifically to your arms (but not the ability to rip apart cuffs), so if someone took one of them from you and replaced their own arm with it, they would also gain those attributes.

Advantages

• Above-average stamina. Without any other stamina buffs or penalties, you have 250 Max Stamina and 20 Stamina Regeneration. For reference, a plain human has only 200 Max Stamina and 10 Stamina Regeneration. With all this extra stamina you can sprint longer, swing weapons more often, withstand stamina-draining weapons like tasers a little better, and generally be a more efficient fighter than regular people.
• More powerful punches than an ordinary crew member. They get +5 bonus damage, meaning punches do 7-14 BRUTE. For comparison, normal humans only do 2-9 BRUTE. Combined with your Stamina boosts, you can be pretty decent hand-to-hand.
• Handcuffs and shackles are not a problem, since if you are cuffed, you can rip them apart instantly. To do so, click the Resist button on your HUD or press either Z if you're using Goon WASD or C for /tg/-style WASD.
• Almost every door can be pried open, with a delay, breaking it permanently as if emagged. To pry a door open, just click on it with an empty hand and hold still for a few seconds. You can do this even if one of your hands is full--you're just that strong!
  • You can also use the same technique to pry open firelocks and sliding window-doors, and they'll be permanently opened too.
  • It doesn't work on blast doors/shutters like the ones used in Pod Bays and Security though. You can still click on them to try to pry them open, but it won't succeed, and the game will tell you the door is too strong, essentially wasting your time.
  • Wearing an ID card overrides this ability if you could open the door in question normally.
• Has a cool and unique skull , because it'd be kind of pathetic if an alien that collected skulls themselves had a pretty lame-looking one. When made into a skullbot, it shimmies side to side rather than bobbing up and down.
• Unlike in the Predator films, you can understand and speak English perfectly fine. You don't, say, extend m's or whatever like cows. You can understand the human and cyborg prey, and they can understand you.
• Also unlike the Predator films (or at least, the first two), you don't need a mask or special apparatus to be able to breathe the station's/ship's atmosphere. In fact, your respiration system works exactly like a human's, down to needing oxygen and all that. Of course, that also means hull breaches and harmful gases such as plasma can still hurt you, among other disadvantages. Speaking of...

Disadvantages

• You don't have any special melee attacks (aside from the bonus damage) or stun resistance, and you're just as vulnerable to injuries, toxins and diseases as everybody else.
• Combined with the lack of health regeneration, you will probably want to avoid close combat unless you have the upper hand.
• Since you aren't immune to suffocation, don't forget to hook up internals to your mask when necessary.
• By default, Hunters count as non-human for the AI.
• You immediately set off security scanners just by being a Hunter (to say nothing of all the illegal gear you're hunting with), and GuardBuddies will try to arrest/attack you on sight for similar reasons. Securitrons won't do that, but they still consider you suspicious, so if you also whip out a gun or some other contraband in their sights, they'll likely go after you. All these can inherently detect that you're a Hunter, so you can't just wear huge clothing or steal an ID to disguise yourself.
• When you speak, instead of "says" or variations of that, the chat messages have "snarls", even when you're imitating someone's voice through the hunter mask. This can make masquerading yourself as a crew member more difficult.

Abilities

The phoenix has a couple of abilities that are designed to be used together to take down solo targets. This makes the phoenix incredibly dangerous in one-on-one situations if it comes down to it

Icon	Name	Cooldown	Description
picture	Return to Station	0 seconds, toggleable	This is a toggleable ability that causes you to return to the station Z level when traveling off the current Z level, similarly to pods. Note that if toggled on when on the station Z level, you'll travel to the other edge of the Z level rather than a new Z level.
picture	Show Map	0	Shows you a map of the station Z level, containing markers for your nest and yourself. Useful for navigating space.
picture	Sail	30 seconds	This ability channels over some time to grant you a temporary, massive speed buff while in space. The channel time is not interrupted by being attacked or moving but is interrupted by every other action. Use this ability to either traverse space or escape attackers. For maximum effect when escaping attackers, make sure to use Ice Barrier first.
picture	Ice Barrier	20 seconds	This ability channels over some time to grant you a temporary, massive speed buff while in space. The channel time is not interrupted by being attacked or moving but is interrupted by every other action. Use this ability to either traverse space or escape attackers. For maximum effect when escaping attackers, make sure to use Ice Barrier first.
picture	Glacier	20 seconds	This ability channels over some time to grant you a temporary, massive speed buff while in space. The channel time is not interrupted by being attacked or moving but is interrupted by every other action. Use this ability to either traverse space or escape attackers. For maximum effect when escaping attackers, make sure to use Ice Barrier first.
picture	Thermal Shock	60 seconds	This ability channels over some time to grant you a temporary, massive speed buff while in space. The channel time is not interrupted by being attacked or moving but is interrupted by every other action. Use this ability to either traverse space or escape attackers. For maximum effect when escaping attackers, make sure to use Ice Barrier first.
picture	Wind Chill	30 seconds	This ability channels over some time to grant you a temporary, massive speed buff while in space. The channel time is not interrupted by being attacked or moving but is interrupted by every other action. Use this ability to either traverse space or escape attackers. For maximum effect when escaping attackers, make sure to use Ice Barrier first.
picture	Touch of Death	60 seconds	This ability channels over some time to grant you a temporary, massive speed buff while in space. The channel time is not interrupted by being attacked or moving but is interrupted by every other action. Use this ability to either traverse space or escape attackers. For maximum effect when escaping attackers, make sure to use Ice Barrier first.
picture	Permafrost	60 seconds	This ability channels over some time to grant you a temporary, massive speed buff while in space. The channel time is not interrupted by being attacked or moving but is interrupted by every other action. Use this ability to either traverse space or escape attackers. For maximum effect when escaping attackers, make sure to use Ice Barrier first.

How to play as the Phoenix

The phoenix's main capabilities are high one-on-one lethality and poke damage. You tend to be on the weaker side when vulnerable, so you should be careful, but you can also be very dangerous, so that should be used to your advantage.

Versus humans, when you can, you should continually poke and whittle away at targets. There's a handy temperature indicator that appears on humans that you chill. When it turns dark blue, this means that you can use Wind Chill on the target to freeze them in an anchored ice cube. You can also follow up with Touch of Death on the ice cube to cause them to be paralyzed and unable to move. This ability chain is incredibly lethal versus alone targets, but its capability is reduced a lot if there's more than one person. Your other abilities can be used as needed to help.

Versus pods, they can be very aggressive, but you also need to be aggressive. Use your Ice Barrier ability to gain an advantage against the pod's attacks, and hard kite the pod, using feathers to reduce its health until its destroyed. Your Glacier ability can be useful at blocking the pod's movement. If you need to retreat, you can use your Sail ability to escape.

Permafrost should be used to establish a beachhead on the station from where you can attack from

Make sure to collect dead bodies in your nest! The increased health regeneration will allow you to recover from fights quicker and increases your chance of survival.

Objectives

As the phoenix, you have the following three objectives. While not required to follow, you do get a medal if you complete all of them and live!
1. Collect 5 dead humans in your nest
2. Collect 5 dead critters in your nest
3. Use Permafrost on 5 station areas

How to play against the Phoenix

The phoenix can appear to be very dangerous, but there's a few things that help a lot versus it.

If you aren't in a pod, the phoenix's main utility against you is chills and cold damage. All of its attacks and abilities chill you down, but the chill can be reduced wearing cold protective gear, with space suits being the most easily accessible. Though any cold clothing will work. Its abilities are designed to be lethal if you are cold, so any way of increasing your body temperature counteracts this. This can be anything from patting yourself for warmth to using chemicals such as Teporone. The phoenix is also very dangerous in a 1 versus 1 situation, so 1 on 1s should be avoided unless you're confident you can take it on.

In a pod, you should continually be aggressive versus the phoenix, playing around its Ice Barrier ability which will make your attacks much less effective. In the event the phoenix is able to escape, you can follow its ice trail to chase it