Cyborg
Cyborgs are robots usually constructed in robotics by the roboticists and typically equipped with human brains. They can also use an interface board instead, allowing the AI to assume control of the cyborg body. Cyborgs are more durable and sturdy than humans and have captain-level access, but there is a big limitation in return. Cyborgs have no hands and therefore cannot pick things up. They have to rely on built-in tools to do stuff instead.
They also have access to robotic communications along with the AI, effectively giving them their own private radio channel. To use it, type:
say :s [your message]
Cyborgs are considered the AI's assistants and share its laws. If an AI is corrupted or subverted, the cyborgs will follow suit, unless they are emagged.
DO NOT HARM ANYONE UNLESS YOUR LAWS ALLOW IT! Even if you are under attack by a traitor, you can't fight back directly!
Perks
- Immune to toxins, suffocation damage and extreme temperatures.
- Immune to most maladies (diseases, radiation, etc).
- Can survive in space and navigate it if equipped with a propulsion upgrade or a fire extinguisher.
- Resistant (but not immune) to stuns in general. Flashes and stun batons are still very effective against cyborgs.
- Has a set of items, which cannot be removed or lost.
- Access to the mostly-private robotic channel.
- Can interact with computers from afar.
- Can anything without being slowed down, including corpses, downed humans, and a crate/locker/container of player mobs not on help intent. Nuclear bombs are the one exception.
- Can call the Escape Shuttle without having to insert the appropriate ID card.
Restrictions
- Unable to pick up, use, equip or interact with external items. The exception are most computers, robots and other machines, as long as they are powered.
- Limited by the charge of their power cell, which is displayed in the status panel.
- Must follow the laws of the AI.
- Can be forcibly self-destructed by using the robotics computer unless protected.
Cyborg Interface
Click on the module panel to select a starter module, if yours starts out empty and just shows a command prompt. Once you've picked one, use the module panel icon to access your equipment. Pick the tool you need, then click the frame of the corresponding item slot to select it, just like a hand. You can free that slot for other equipment by using the store highlighted item button. All things in an active slot consume battery charge constantly, so needlessly leaving things equipped will mandate more frequent recharging. Also keep an eye on your health indicator.
There are other buttons and icons on your main interface:
- Atmosphere and temperature - Of no importance to cyborgs, but this information can be essential for ensuring the safety of humans.
- Radio panel - Change the frequency of your radio or mute the mic.
- Intent and targeting - Determines which part of the body you want to target when you are interacting with a human, and how. Generally only relevant for medical cyborgs.
- Stop pulling - If you're pulling something, click this button to release the object.
- Upgrade panel - Allows you to activate/deactivate installed upgrades. This panel can be hidden when you don't need it.
In addition, there are a couple of verbs in the Robot Commands tab:
- Show Alerts - Not fully functional, but it does list drained or disabled APCs.
- Show Laws - Self-explanatory.
- Toggle Interface Lock - Locks/unlocks your interface, allowing access to your head compartment and chest cover. This would otherwise require a roboticist's (or better) ID.
- Open Nearest Door to... - Opens up a list of people within range of the station's cameras and, well, opens whatever door is closest to them. Only works if you're a cyborg with an AI interface board.
- Recall to Mainframe - If you're a cyborg shell controlled by the AI, you move back to your core and regain all the associated AI abilities. If you aren't, it does nothing.
Also, electronic equipment (doors, computers, APCs, etc) may be clicked on and interacted with as though you were the AI. Remember to follow your laws during these interactions, e.g. do not shock doors to subdue the traitor, as that would be harming a human!
Charging stations
The charging stations are intended for the maintenance of cyborgs and can be used to repair damage and recharge their power cell. Cyborgs can enter the station by using drag & drop or the Move Inside verb (right click). Roboticists may also customize a cyborg's name, appearance, module and upgrades. In the absence of a helping hand, limited self-service is still possible. Simply insert upgrades and clothing by drag-and-dropping them into the charging station. Clothing for the head, mask, exo-suit and jumpsuit slots can be worn by cyborgs.
Charging stations are available in the following areas:
- Robotics.
- Tool Storage.
- Mining Department, in the room below where all the equipment is kept.
- A room below the AI Chamber with an Engineering airlock, where the AI's SMES is kept.
- The Mining Outpost.
- Robotics.
- Bathrooms.
- The Mining Outpost.
- Robotics.
- Locker Room.
- The Mining Outpost.
- Robotics.
- The AI Chamber, in the room just after the catwalk.
- Robotics.
- The inexplicable, unnamed room in the maintenance tunnel next to EVA.
- The AI Satellite, in the inner circle where the AI is actually kept.
- The Mining Outpost.
- Robotics.
- The Mining Outpost.
Anatomy of a Cyborg
Cyborgs are a bit more modular than their organic crewmates, so two cyborgs are rarely exactly alike. A cyborg's physical frame is made up of a head, a chest, two arms, and two legs. Players who start the round as cyborgs, or are converted by nanomachines, will spawn in light frames, which are the fastest and most fragile suits.
Body
Frame and chest
Centerpieces which keep the cyborg together and function as mounting points for the extremities and internal components. They cannot be reinforced despite their importance.
Item | Image | Description |
---|---|---|
Frame | The part which holds everything together. Can be emagged to make a Emagged frame with no laws. | |
Frame (Syndicate) | Activated cyborg (excluding AI-controlled ones) will have a special set of laws and capabilities. | |
Chest (Light) | Houses the cyborg's battery, module, and any upgrades it may have. It is also critical, and the cyborg will be killed if the chest unit is destroyed. | |
Chest (Standard) | Significantly more durable, but that point is largely academic as even a light chest will often be the only thing left intact if a cyborg is caught in a bomb blast. |
Battery
Cyborgs run on batteries that must be recharged periodically. Without a battery, a cyborg is nonfunctional. When your battery starts running below 1000 PU or so, your item slots empty out, and you can't use your them until you recharge. If you let trickle down to zero, you can't talk or make emotes, and you are unable to pull or interact with things.
A cyborg that spawns at roundstart has with a battery with 7500 PU, but the roboticist has replacements that have 15000 PU. This increase is huge, and you should definitely pester your roboticist to replace your battery immediately. There are better batteries, including a self-recharging one, but robotics rarely gets the materials to make one unless you bring it personally, so don't worry about it.
Head
This is a critical part for all cyborgs, as it carries the brain that allows them to function. If the head is destroyed, the cyborg is irrevocably gone; the brain is eradicated in the explosion and there is no way to retrieve it. For this reason, cyborgs benefit greatly from having the roboticist reinforce their head. The head cannot be reinforced after a cyborg is activated, so this is usually a consideration if you are designing your own body prior to being borged.
Arms and legs
Cyborgs ideally have both a pair of arms and legs. Arms allow them to pull things around and use tools from their module, and as such represent a specific slot each (left equals No 1, right is No 3). If both arms are destroyed, the cyborg remains active but is limited to the No 2 item slot. Legs are likewise non-critical, yet losing them will slow the cyborg's movement speed dramatically.
Patching up
As mentioned, cyborgs are immune to many types of damage. They can still get dented and burnt, though, so repairs might become necessary:
- Brute damage
- Automatic - Enter a charging station, select Repair Structural Damage and an appropriate amount of welding fuel.
- Manual - Use a welding tool on the damaged cyborg. Works for AI shells as well.
- Burn damage
- Automatic - Enter a charging station, select Repair Burn Damage and an appropriate amount of wiring.
- Manual - Unlock the cyborg's interface, open the cover with a crowbar and expose the wiring with a screwdriver. You can then replace the burnt wiring with a cable coil. AI shells: simply use the cable coil on them, nothing else is required.
Upgrades
In addition to the tools provided by their module (see below), cyborgs have can get a few extra perks from installed upgrade packages. By default, every cyborg has three slots for upgrades. You will occasionally get one of these for free when choosing your initial module.
Item | Single- use? |
Description |
---|---|---|
Efficiency Upgrade | ✗ | As a cyborg, you will constantly be looking with worry at your battery. This useful upgrade lowers your base power usage by 1. |
Expansion Upgrade | ✓ | Adds another slot for upgrades. The more expansion upgrades you take, the more power you draw. Lots more. As in, exponentially more. |
Force Shield Upgrade | ✗ | Generates a forcefield that reflects all projectiles (bullets, energy weapon shots, even rockets, but not thrown items), blocks low damage (<4) attacks, and reduces incoming brute damage by 50%. Draws lots of power, especially when tanking blob attacks. Great for Syndicate cyborgs who want to go in swinging with a fire extinguisher. |
Heat Shield Upgrade | ✗ | Exactly like the force shield, projectile reflection and all, except this one reduces burn damage rather than brute. Excellent for resisting acidfoam or tanking laser shots and the like. |
Meson Upgrade | ✗ | Gives you the benefit of Meson Goggles, allowing you to see the layout of the station and asteroids. This is absolutely critical if you are going mining as a cyborg and somewhat useful for messing with the engine |
ProDoc Healthgoggles | ✗ | Allows you to assess the health of humans at a glance, just like health goggles. Exceptionally useful for doctoring. |
Propulsion Upgrade | ✗ | This lets you navigate in space as though you had a jetpack, which makes you infinitely more useful to the station and also makes playing as a borg infinitely more fun. Instead of being confined to the station, you can go EVA to rescue people or explore the Debris Field with someone. Without one of these, your only hope to navigate is to use a fire extinguisher, which not all modules have. |
Recharge Pack | ✓ | This single-use upgrade fully recharges the cyborg's battery. Useful if you're planning on going exploring or have a project you don't want to be distracted from. |
Recovery Upgrade | ✗ | Immediately reboots your systems, nullifying the effects of flashes and other stun weaponry. Drains 3333 PU per use. |
Repair Pack | ✓ | Cyborgs are generally resilient, but they pay for this by not being able to recover from damage very easily, since most modules can only repair themselves by returning to a recharging station. This single-use upgrade fixes this by giving the cyborg a full repair that they can activate at their convenience. |
Self-Repair Upgrade | ✗ | Allows the cyborg to continually expend energy to repair itself. Can be a saving grace if the charging stations are destroyed, but it drains the cyborg's battery quite rapidly. |
Speed Upgrade | ✗ | Standard and reinforced cyborgs are much slower than humans, and you are going to lose any footrace with a healthy human. The speed upgrade changes that, effectively turning you into a massive metal Speedy Gonzalez. Absolutely fantastic any time you want to cover a lot of ground in a straight line, but very obnoxious any time you need to make turns. The module can be difficult to control, so make sure to turn it off when you don't want to be dashing down the hallways at the speed of sound. |
Teleporter Upgrade | ✗ | Allows the cyborg to bring up a menu as if they were at the teleporter room computer and teleport themselves to any valid tracking beacon. |
Modules
The majority of a cyborg's functionality comes from its module, which defines which tools it has access to. This can be changed with the help of a roboticist, though a rewritten or inserted module will not give you any initial upgrade associated with that module.
When you open your panel interface for the first time, you get to pick a free starter module. This WILL give you an initial upgrade for some choices, depending on the module. Every module comes with:
- Flashlight
- Omnitool - a Swiss Knife of tools. Click on it the cycle it through five modes.
- Snipping - Wirecutters mode.
- Wrenching - Wrench mode. Handy for turning manual valves in in air hookups and engine loops, securing and unsecuring plant trays, connecting gas canisters and portable filters to ports, things like that.
- Prying - Crowbar mode. Pry open firelocks and unpowered doors.
- Pulsing - Multitool mode. Mostly pointless, but can be used to hack vending machines or repair APCs if you have wires available.
- Screwing - Screwdriver mode.
- PDA - With the Super Deluxe cartridge. Messaging is handy, because robotic chat is often compromised.
- Atmospheric analyzer
- Health analyzer - Comes with the reagent scanner upgrade by default too.
- Reagent scanner
- Cell cables - Recharge APCs manually or use them to recharge yourself. Expose the wiring with your screwdriver, then attach the cables. The direction of power flow depends on the mode of the cables. Both are 1:1 ratio of APC power to cell power.
- Positive (red) mode: Uses power from your internal battery to charge the APC's.
- Negative (blue) mode: Uses the APC's battery to recharge your cell.
All cyborgs equipped with beakers/drinking glasses/bottles or similar containers have access to drag & drop functionality for ease of use. To directly transfer reagents from containers that aren't in your inventory, click-drag them onto a suitable receptacle in one of your item slots. Large water and fuel tanks also support the same mechanic for certain target receptacles. Furthermore, cyborgs can use drag & drop to attach barcode labels to crates and other objects.
Civilian
Cooks your food, grows your weed, and cleans after all that too! To plant seeds, use drag and drop or synthesize them directly with your fabricator. You can also use drag and drop to stuff seeds, produce and plant formulas into the PlantMaster for experimentation, and produce into the reagent extractor for extraction.
Equipment:
- Fire extinguisher - Also doubles as an impromptu jetpack.
- Pen - Write notes and menus that no one will read!
- Plant analyzer
- Watering can - Also doubles as a beaker.
- Portable seed fabricator - Everything, including the fun stuff (weed, slurrypods etc).
- Compost bag - Make use of a compost tank if you wish to refill it.
- Igniter - Get rid of a plant without dumping the tray out.
- Chainsaw - Very effective at trimming hedges, not so good at trimming human heads.
- Produce satchel
- Cleaner bottle - A spray bottle of space cleaner.
- Mop - Won't be very useful without the mop bucket.
- Bucket - To transfer water to said bucket. Also doubles as a beaker.
- Camera monitor - Lets you view the cameras. Remember to deselect the module containing the monitor, or you won't be able to affect anything you see.
- Lightweight rolling pin - Still lets you make pizza dough and such, but does little damage.
- Bread knife - Great for cutting delicious pizza and cake. Not so great for cutting humans.
- Icing tube
Starting Upgrade: Efficiency Upgrade
Engineering
The ultimate engineer, this cyborg is the only one that can fully repair its fellow borgs. You are expected to assist with the engine startup and fix up damage all across the station, big and small.
Equipment:
- Atmospherics transporter - Holds up to two portable atmos objects (canister, pump, scrubber) at a time.
- Fire extinguisher
- Welder - Can also be used to repair the chassis of yourself, other cyborgs or the AI.
- T-ray scanner - Lets you see the wiring under the floor so you can pull it up to repair or check its load. Also causes nearby cloaking devices to flicker.
- Device analyzer - For assisting the mechanics. Can store several scans at once.
- Soldering iron - Allows you to deploy the finished projects.
- Rapid construction device - Lets you create and destroy walls, floors, and airlocks quickly and easily. Uses your cell power in the place of matter units.
- Floor tiles x500 - Allows you to lay new flooring. For fastest use, simply move and tap Page Down, which will automatically use the selected tool.
- Metal rods x500 - Useful for building reinforced windows and making barricades.
- Metal sheets x500 - For repairing walls, building chairs and various other objects.
- Glass sheets x500 - Handy for making windows, which tend to be more attractive than endless hallways. Use your screwdriver to secure them in place.
- Cable coil x500 - Suitable for fixing APCs, hotwiring the solars, and, of course, wire art!
Starting Upgrade: Optical Meson Scanner Upgrade
Medical
Much like a medical doctor, or medbot with a brain.
Equipment:
- Defibrillator - Fixes cardiac arrest (heart failure). Apply drugs to stabilize patients or they'll get new heart attacks.
- Scalpel - For cutting out bullets, shrapnel and implants. Use drag & drop to put people on a surgery table.
- Circular saw - Used together with scalpel to remove body parts. Patient must be on a surgery table.
- Enucleation spoon - Cut their eyes out...with a spoon! (If only you could add it in too.)
- Hemostat - Reduces the amount of bleeding damage taken during surgery.
- Suture - Closes open wounds and stops bleeding.
- Blood pack - Use this if somebody has suffered severe blood loss. Can be refilled by drawing blood from a donor or by transferring blood from a beaker, dropper or syringe.
- Post-incendary dermal repair stamp - Heals a small amount of burn damage. Unlimited supply.
- Tissue reapplication stamp - The same, but for brute damage.
- Syringe x2 - Empty syringes you can fill with whatever you want. It's generally a good idea to keep one of them loaded with epinephrine, and the other filled with anti-toxin at all times. Remember, injecting toxins is harming a human!
- Hypospray x2
- Dropper - For topical drugs. Refer to Doctoring for the whole list.
- Epinephrine reserve tank - 100 units of epinephrine, to be used with your syringes. Keeps critically injured patients alive while you prepare damage-specific medicine.
- Anti-Toxin reserve tank - Charcoal, to be precise. Heals toxin damage.
- Large beaker - 100u capacity, for all those odd medicines.
Starting Upgrade: Health Scanner Upgrade
Mining
Your job is to make use of the mineral magnet and help the miners. Note that you do not get an optical meson upgrade when you choose this module, so insist upon getting one from your roboticist or make one yourself.
Equipment:
- Laser drill - One of the best personal digging tool out there.
- Cargo transporter - This allows you to teleport crates full of ore back to the station. Click the crate with an empty hand to close it properly.
- Geological scanner - Scans the local area for things like explosive veins, gems, and other dangers.
- Ore scoop - Comes with a satchel, which cannot be detached. Walk over loose ore, then click on a floor tile, table or crate to dump the ore.
- Large mining satchel x2 - If either of them has somehow ended up on the floor, the Store button on the HUD should add it back to your inventory.
- Space GPS
- Fire extinguisher
Starting Upgrade: Propulsion Upgrade
Chemistry
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to be a scientist and create more space lube smoke to unleash everywhere. Or help resupply medbay maybe.
Equipment:
- Built-in spectroscopic scanner goggles.
- Mini-ChemMaster - Will not dispense chemicals. Will allow you to isolate chemicals and such on the fly though.
- Syringe x2
- Dropper
- Mechanical dropper
- Large beaker x3 - With a capacity of 100 units each.
- Drinking glass - Effectively another 50 unit container, but the contents of this one may be fed to humans instead of splashed on them.
- Fire extinguisher
Starting upgrade: None
Brobocop
PRIME DIRECTIVES:
1: Help Security uphold the law
2: Protect the innocent
3: Serve the public trust
4: [CLASSIFIED]
Equipment:
- Sound synthesizer - Become a mobile noise generator. Honk to your heart's content as you move closer and closer to being a glorified bike horn. Click on yourself with it to change its tune.
- Food synthesizer - Dispenses a small variety of synthetic foods. Click on yourself with it to clear the selection, then use the synthesizer itself to pick a different item.
- Space beer - Plain old beer. Why not use the dispensers to spice things up?
- Zippo lighter - How snazzy would it be to have a flamethrower on your finger? Sadly, that roboticist did not give you one of those.
- Pen - Write down clues and show those fun-hating scum what you really think of them.
- Drinking glass
- Probability disc - In other words, a coin.
- Probability cube
- Securotron-5000 - For changing the arrest status of crew members, particularly when processing arrested and released criminals.
- Forensic scanner - Investigate crime in the places where no Security Officer can go.
- Cardboard tube - The latest in non-lethal technology. It's perfectly harmless!
- Audio tape - Record incriminating evidence. Or your latest mix tape. Just try not to eject it; it won't go back in if you do.
- Camera monitor - Lets you view the cameras. Remember to deselect the module containing the monitor, or you won't be able to affect anything you see.
- Hand labeler - Put amusing and/or useful labels on people and objects. Click/activate it in-hand to set the label, click on anything else to put the label on it. Putting nothing for the label text lets you remove labels.
Starting Upgrade: Self-Repair Module
Discontinued Modules
- Atmospherics - Assist with re-pressurization of station assets. Merged with engineering.
- Vendor - Produce synthetic food for the crew to eat. Merged with brobot.
- Security - Detain criminals and assist security officers. Removed due to rampant abuse, killing and law breaking.
- Construction - Build and repair the station. Merged with engineering.
- Hydroponics - Grow produce. Merged with civilian.
- Janitor - Clean up messes. Merged with civilian.
- Brobot - Synthesize food and spam funny sounds. Revamped into brobocop.
- Standard - Have lots of random junk. Removed for being useless, redundant and boring to play. Camera monitor given to brobocop.
Supplementary Video
Jobs on Space Station 13 | ||
---|---|---|
Command & Security |
Captain · Head of Security · Head of Personnel · Chief Engineer · Research Director · Medical Director | |
Medical & Research |
Medical Doctor · Medical Trainee · Roboticist · Geneticist | |
Engineering | Engineer · Technical Trainee | |
Civilian |
Staff Assistant · Janitor · Chaplain · Mail Courier · Radio Host · Mime | |
Silicon | Artificial Intelligence · Cyborg | |
Jobs of the Day | Dungeoneer · Barber · Waiter · Lawyer · Tourist · Musician · Boxer | |
Antagonist Roles | With own mode | Arcfiend · Blob · Changeling · Gang Member · Flockmind ( Flocktrace) · Nuclear Operative · Spy Thief · Traitor · Revolutionary · Vampire ( Thrall) · Wizard |
Others | Sleeper Agent · Werewolf · Wraith ( Poltergeist) · Wrestler · Hunter · Grinch · Krampus · Gimmick antagonist roles | |
Special Roles | Ghostdrone · Monkey · Critter · Ghost · Cluwne · Santa Claus |