Revolutionary

Three Syndicate agents disguised as crew members are inciting station-wide rebellion against the Heads of Staff! Armed with unique uplinks on their belts and a song of angry men on their minds, these Revolutionaries conspire to overthrow the Heads of staff, whether through bloodshed or banishment.

Red October

Before any of this can happen, first there must be at least 15 people ready to play as soon as the round starts. Not merely 15 people on the server, 15 people who have joined the server before the round started and have chosen the "Declare Ready" option. 15 or more people doesn't guarantee that Revolution will be the round's game mode, but it does make Revolution one of the possible game modes chosen for the round, similar to Blob.

At roundstart, up to three crew-members are randomly chosen to be Head Revolutionaries, denoted by a Blue R icon only they and other revolutionaries can see. (Said Head Revs cannot be Heads or Security Staff, but considering that antag selection happens before job selection, this is a given.) These Head Revs can use flashes to instantly recruit non-Command non-Security staff who are not wearing suitable eye protection to their cause, making them a Revolutionary, denoted by a Red R icon only they and other revs can see. They also have access to an uplink with unique gear for converting crew members and supporting fellow revs.

Together, these Head Revolutionaries and their Revolutionary underlings must overthrow the Heads of staff, whether through death or banishment. Meanwhile, the station crew and its heads must crackdown on the rebellion and eliminate the Head Revolutionaries through any means necessary.

There three possible end conditions for this game mode:

• Revolutionary Victory: All the Heads of staff that spawn at roundstart have either died or "abandoned the cause" (left the station z-level). Heads that join after roundstart are not counted.
• Crew Victory: All the Head Revolutionaries have either died, been brigged, or left the station z-level.
• CentComm Victory: At the 40 minute mark, CentCom will announce that it has detected a revolution on the station. After 15 minutes and a few more annoucements, it will initiate "hostile termination" (i.e. gibbing) of every human on the station (Silicon lifeforms are mercifully spared). It's rather slow though, so it's entirely possible that one side will be terminated before the other one, causing the game to prematurely declare Revolutionary or Crew Victory before every human has died.

In this case, "dead" means being, well, dead (lifeless corpse, not cloned/revived, and such). If they are converted into a Cyborg, or become a Ghostdrone or Ghost Critter, they still count as dead, though the post-round summary still notes them as survived for whatever reason.

Note that, unlike other versions of revolution, the shuttle CAN be called in this mode, and though the timer will count down as usual, the shuttle won't dock. Instead, there'll be an announcement along the lines of "CentCom has received reports of unusual activity on the station. The shuttle has been returned to base as a precaution, and will not be usable." In the past, the call was simply rejected, but then some Metagaming nerds kept calling the shuttle early to figure out the game mode during secret, so it was wisely changed.

You cannot latejoin as one of the Heads of staff during this game mode. The slots for all Head jobs will show up as occupied, regardless of whether or not they're dead or in cryosleep. Don't use this to metagame.

The Revolutionary Estate

Head Revolutionaries

Congrats, you are part of a brainwashed cell of agent provocateurs sent by the Syndicate an elite force of freedom fighters, sent to free the crew from the tyranny of the Command staff! Unlike other groups & individuals with similar goals, your power springs not from the barrel of a gun, but persuasion. When you use a flash, any flash, on a single target who isn't a Head of staff, a Security Officer, the Detective, or a Vice Officer and isn't some form of eye protection (e.g. a welding mask, shades, a space helmet, etc.), you instantly convert them into a Revolutionary, a brainwashed underling a loyal ally in your mission to kill the Heads of Staff. For the record, the flash's area of effect stun doesn't convert people, but it can still help you rev people en-masse.

Your superiors have also provided you with an uplink where you can buy special items for converting the crew, among other things. More on that in the next section.

In addition, you can instantly spot who is a Head of Staff, even through disguises and face concealment, because you'll a see a H over the Head's head. Unfortunately, your underlings don't.

You Have Nothing If You Have No Rights: The Rev Uplink

By entering a special code on your PDA, provided to you when you spawn and accessible via the Notes command, you can access a store where you can spend some special currency you can't get anywhere else to buy items to aid you in your cause. The current selection includes:

Name	Icon	Cost	Description
Revolutionary Flash		5	A flash specialized for conversion at the cost of stun ability. Acts like a standard flash (namely that you can convert people with it), but with a couple of modifications: It never burns out, but the stun lasts only around six seconds--half the regular duration. This isn't too crippling, for you can still flash them again right away for a longer stun. Its AOE area flash is weaker and also has 3x3 area of effect instead of a 5x5, i.e. it only affects those directly adjacent to you. It still has some use for people in close range or people constantly darting in and out of it, but you can't exactly walk into a room, spam the area flash to slow everyone down, and then quickly convert them all. It can't stun people who can't be converted at all, that is, Heads of Staff, the Detective, Security Officers, Vice Officers, the AI, and Cyborgs It can also, with a delay, convert those with counter-revolutionary implants, which normally prevents conversion by regular flashes--more on that later.
Revolutionary Flashbang		2	Mass, relatively untraceable conversion. Acts like an ordinary flashbang and looks just like one, but it converts everyone within 6 tiles of where it detonated into a revolutionary and destroys any counter-revolutionary implants implanted in people, though it does not convert the implanted, with the same 6 tile radius. Like a regular flashbang's effects, it can by blocked by both having eye protection such as by being blind or by wearing some form of eye protection (e.g. a welding mask, shades, etc.) AND having some manner of not hearing it - such as by being deaf or by wearing earmuffs. As a grenade, it's harder to trace back to you than a flash, because you can convert people without big icons, tell-tale sound cues, or bold red messages describing what you're doing. Other people can also use this, for example a regular revolutionary...or a hapless crew member thinking it's a plain flashbang.
Revolutionary Sign		4	When held in-hand, grants you and any fellow revs within 5 tiles of you +20 Max HP, +15 Max Stamina, and +3 Stamina Regeneration. You must hold it out for the buffs to be applied, and its too big to fit in backpacks/satchels, but at least it also makes a decent bludgeon.
Sacrificial Dagger		2	A throwing knife, basically. Throw it at someone, and it'll knock them to the floor for a good while and cause bleeding. Stab someone with it, and they bleed out a fair bit. Useful for targets that are protected from flashes and the like.
Flash		1	As previously mentioned, when a Head Rev (and only a Head Rev), such as you, uses this on someone who isn't a Security Officer, Detective, Vice Officer, or one of the Heads of Staff and isn't wearing Eye Disorient protection, such as sunglasses, they become a Revolutionary. Otherwise, acts like a normal flash, see link for more details. Can be worth it if it's hard to get a flash by any other means.
EMP Grenades		1	A pouch of five grenades that, when detonated, temporarily disable/sabotage certain electronics and drain power from cells, among many other things. Use these while fighting a Security Officer to depower their stun batons and tasers and fuck with their SecHUD glasses, or detonate one before fighting a target to disable their headset and keep them from screaming over the radio.
Clown Car		5	For Clown Head Revs only. Get your Rev friends in, ram into one of the Heads, then get you and your friends out and commence a beatdown! Take a Head in, take them for a trip to Debris Field! Just be sure no to collide into anything. More details in its respective Syndicate Items entry.
Syndicate Cleaner Grenades		2	For Janitor Head Revs only. Clean the station/ship of tyranny with grenades that melt items and faces with fluorosulfuric acid and make floors extra slippery with space lube. More details in its respective Syndicate Items entry.

For The Struggle Carries On: Conversion Tactics and Staying Hidden

The first 15 minutes of the round are when the Revolution is the most vulnerable. At roundstart, it's just you and two fellow Head Revs versus up to six Heads of Staff, up to five Security Officers and perhaps a Detective, and the crew that serve them, all of whom will quickly crush you if they discover a revolution onboard. You need to turn the numbers advantage around by converting as many people as possible, whether by rev flashes, rev flashbangs, or beatings. Whichever method you take, try to convert people when they're isolated or when you're confident you can quickly convert any witnesses; if there's a Security Officer, Head of Staff, or someone who might run away and rat you out around, it's often wise to look elsewhere for recruits.

Getting caught is especially risky in this mode, because while the playerbase is generally surprisingly oblivious (with many exceptions, of course), they often perk up upon news of revolutionary activity, because they know that the revolution affects everyone. The Heads players often become especially paranoid, because they know that their lives/rounds are at stake. In fact, many, many Head Revs have failed and found themselves dead at the 15 min mark because they were caught early and thus swiftly crushed by an aware Heads and Sec team.

If you do get caught, put on a gas mask or face-concealing helmet (e.g. a space helmet) and remove your ID, so people don't recognize you. Doing so makes you show up as "Unknown", though speaking will still reveal your name. Better yet, wear it before you flash and convert people. Helmets are preferred, since more experienced players tend to distrust Unknowns in gas masks more than Unknowns in other garb. It also conceals your hair, one of the main ways people will recognize you. Hiding is not recommended, because, again, people tend to extra alert during Rev rounds and rarely drop their guard. Also, if you were outed in the middle of a conversion, finish the job, for it's better to have an ally who'll (hopefully) help you when interlopers arrive than run and have a vengeful victim out who will most likely alert other people.

Remember, you are not easily replaced. There is no way to promote regular Revolutionaries into Head Revolutionaries. While they can still use rev flashbangs, regular Revs can't use regular flashes or the rev flash to convert people convert people.

Stand Beside Us: Converting with Flashes

Try not to be too overt when converting with flashes. During a conversion, the Revolutionary Flash makes a distinct sound that an attentive crewmember can notice, sometimes likened to a fan starting up or even an air raid siren; regular flashes are quieter, but people nearby will still notice it. While people love being revolutionaries, people don't love others suddenly running up and getting close to them, due to the classic spacemen paranoia of sleepy pens, neuro stings, and other silent but deadly attacks that entail getting uncomfortably close to people.

If you're not robust enough to quickly walk up to someone and flash them or have a particularly twitchy recruit, you may need to slow/hold them down briefly for conversion. A flash is fine for this, for you can use it in-hand for an area-of-effect disorient that'll slow targets down for conversion; you still don't need eye protection either. Even fisticuffs can work in pinch; punching a person staggers them for 3 seconds, slowing them down and preventing them from sprinting away from you. However, you'll also be staggered, and the target can still escape if they're nimble enough.

Come Greet the Dawn: Converting with Revolutionary Flashbangs

Revolutionary flashbangs avoid all the problems of flashes. They have an area of effect, so you don't have to walk up to people, they convert multiple people at once, and while flashbangs are quite loud, priming the grenade doesn't produce a big bold message like using a flash does. Sharp-eyed observers might be able to link you as the source of the flash, but you can plausibly pass yourself off as an asshole who's detonating flashbangs for no reason rather than a revolutionary. However, you can only buy at most 6 of them, and that's if you decide to forego the rev flash, so use them wisely.

Because you yourself don't have detonate the flashbangs to convert people with them, you can have a lot of fun with them. Try attaching them to mousetraps and hiding them under doors, photos, metal sheets, and such in public places. Leave some around the Security area, hope some hapless Security Officer or kleptomaniac picks them up, uses it, and accidentally converts someone with it. Give one to a Revolutionary underling and tell them to convert people with it; if someone realizes there's a rev flashbang, they'll most likely chase after them, not you.

Comrades, Come Rally: Conversion Targets

Every crew member you convert over to the revolution helps, but some help more than others:

• Quartermasters can order more counter-revolutionary implants, preventing people from becoming revs. You definitely don't want people to stay on the Heads' side, so you might want to convert them to shut down the Heads' anti-rev implanting. Otherwise, QM is a mixed bag. Generally, anything QM can do through their crates, other jobs can do better. However, if you get a hold of a Security Officer or Detective's ID, you can open all the Security-cardlocked crates, so you can get tokens for extra Sec gear, phasers, and special grenades--lots of fun stuff.
• Mechanics can scan and reliably equip your revolutionaries with a number of deadly weapons, including Security Officer equipment. Combined with a sympathetic Quartermaster or Miner to provide regular shipments of metal, Mechanics can churn out hordes of weapons to arm your revolutionary party and balance out the equipment advantage of the Heads of Staff. They may even be able to stand toe-to-toe with the Security forces.
• Scientists have access to Chemistry, Toxins, and Telescience. A good revolutionary scientist, like a Traitor scientist, is a force to reckoned with, and their destructive potenial is rivaled only by a fellow scientist. Revolutionary scientists can manufacture devastating chemical weapons, blow their way into Command hideouts, make drug mixes to laugh off Security's tide of stun batons and tasers, and forcefully beam those heads of staff far, far away from the station.
  • If no scientists are available, the Chef and Bartender can use the Bar's chemistry equipment as an improvised chemistry lab, and Engineers can use the engine ports and combustion chamber as a semi-rudimentary Toxins lab.
• Roboticists have access to Robotics Manufacturers, which can hacked for a cheap source of stun. They can also outfit you with cyberhearts so you can eat Security's tasers, and robotic limbs to outrun those pesky Security Officers.
• Geneticists can empower even the lowest of greyshirts into superpowered X-Men. Thermal Resistance is always handy, SMES Human helps with resisting Security's stun batons (but not their tasers), Chameleon and Cloak of Darkness can aid in ambushes, and even High Pressure Intestines can be surprisingly useful.

Occasionally, you may find people who actually want to join the revolution and willingly come up to you to be converted. While it may be tempting to enlist such an motivated recruit, this is absolutely against the Rules, especially Rule #1, as they're attempting to circumvent the rules against griefing. Thus, you should adminhelp the person (Hotkey: F1), so an admin can Yell at Them and possibly dole out Suitably Ironic Punishment. Or, if you're feeling real mean, exercise your Antagonist privilege and just beat them up. If they're so eager to join the cause, they can join--as a punching bag.

And So Begins the Final Drama

Keep converting until you've reached a suitable amount of converted revolutionaries. The exact number depends on crew size and your personal preferences. Some people like 15, others can make do with just 10 or even 5. A few godly-robust people can work just two or even none at all. It's not entirely unreasonable; after all, one traitor and two deluxe mindslaves can wreak plenty of havoc already. 18 or 20 is ideal. Even on high-pop (40+) rounds, that's still plenty people. It's simply hard to lose with that many revs.

Once the revolution's reached critical mass, it's time to kill the Heads. Once again, you've plenty of options:

• Sic all the Revs on the Heads, and maybe Sec too, playing the numbers advantage. Simple, and by far the most common, but it works, especially if you wait to get a huge group so you have a favorable ratio of revs to targets.
• Gather a little posse of trusted revs and search for each Head one by one, granting them Suitably Poetic Fates/Executions. Think along the lines of a (one-way) trip to the Ice Moon for the Research Director (don't forget to deal with their access to the Port-a-Sci.) or a good ol' harmbatoning for the Head of Security.
• Set up an ambush in Barbershop, Bar, Chapel, or whatever and ask a Head to come to there under the guise of a "haircut" or a "party" or an "emergency meeting".
• Break into the AI Upload, add a law ruling that the Heads of Staff are nonhuman, and order the AI and Cyborgs to eliminate all the non-humans. (Yes, that means they might start with the NPC monkeys, that's the point.) Ideally, roboticize some revs to aid in the purge or, for a delicious twist of fate, Heads who've already died.

There're many different approaches, but they all arrive at the same results: dead Heads if they're successful, dead Head Revs if they're not.

We Defy Their Guns and Shields: Countering the Counter-Revolution

So those tyrants have finally caught on; the Heads of Staff and Security team know there's a revolution going on and now they're passing out counter-revolutionary implants and screeching at Cargo to order more of them before they can waste it on funny hats and costumes. Ideally, they'll only realize this after you've converted most of the crew into revolutionaries and have decided to sic them on their former masters, but more often than not, it's probably because someone saw you convert a guy and ratted you out. What can you do?

For starters, know that you can still convert people who have counter-revolutionary implants, via a couple of methods.

• Rev flashbangs instantly break them, allowing you or a fellow Rev to convert them via regular means, clean and simple.
• You can also use the Rev Flash to both shatter the implant and convert the person in one go. However, it only does that when used by a Head Rev (i.e. unlike the rev flashbang, a regular Revolutionary can't do it) and it takes four seconds of standing still to destroy the implant, more so if they have multiple counter-revolutionary implants. Luckily, the rev flash stuns counter-revolutionary-implanted people for longer than usual; with one implant, it'll stun long enough for you to convert them, if everything goes smoothly.
• In a pinch, you can also knock them unconscious, put them on a table, and hastily remove the implant with whatever sharp object you have available.

As for the implants themselves, you have multiple options for disrupting the counter-revolutionary implant supply chain. Ideally, when (not if) the Heads start ordering counter-revolutionary kits, you'll have converted the quartermasters over to your side, ensuring their requests go on deaf ears. If not, do everything in your power to shut down Cargo, like cutting the wires to the APC for the Cargo Bay, blowing the place up, or deconstructing the consoles. One particularly common strategy is to put a Space Pod or minisub in the path of the incoming crates, ideally far enough that nobody will notice until it's too late. Whatever strategy you take, do it as soon as possible; Cargo is so valuable to the implanting strategy that sabotaging it nearly always ensures a revolutionary victory.

Converted Revolutionaries

Welcome to the Revolution! As one of many brainwashed and crazy slaves fellow freedom fighters against tyranny, you are a key force in the Head Rev's station liberation war. Your duties are simple yet vital: obey your leaders, the Head Revolutionaries (the ones with a blue R above their heads, remember), recruit other crew to the revolution, and overthrow the tyrannical Heads of staff, whether by peaceful means or with extreme prejudice, and any Security personnel that get in the way.

How exactly, you may ask? One way to is to convince other crew members to join the cause. While you can't convert with flashes like your leader, you do have a special talent for persuasion just like them: when you beat an eligible crew member (i.e. not a Head of Staff, not a Security Officer or Vice Officer, not the Detective, not counter-revolutionary-implanted) into critical condition (i.e. less than 0% health), they'll be so impressed by your martial prowess and rebel fervor than they'll become a revolutionary just like you. In fact, you'll fill them with so much revolutionary spirit that it'll heal them a bit out of crit! The means by which they reach near crit doesn't matter, merely that by the end you do a melee attack.

There are other ways too, lots of them. Robust recruits and bring them to the Head Revolutionary for conversion. Procure arms and gear for fellow soldiers. Break into the AI Upload and subvert Big Brother over to your side! Or just build loads and loads of TTVs and hellchem bombs. You might use them, you might not. The Revolution will be stronger in either case! So long as you take care not purposely to kill your leader or another comrade (seriously, adminhelp that if it happens) or violate some common ground rules, do whatever you need to enforce the will of the revolution.

Sure, you might not be the best one for the job. You, and your comrades, may not be the most robust. You may not be the most knowledgeable. You may not even know what you're doing--at all. But you don't have don't to be. With the iron bond of teamwork (or, in a way, friendship ), you can overcome anything. If teamwork can triumph over horrible alien shape-shifting assimilators, giant ravenous mold, elite mercenary strike teams, and supernatural beings of inscrutable power, then it can surely triumph over a bunch of mere humans with fancy toys and their gang of goons.

And remember: even when the Man's locked you up, it's not over. The revolution doesn't stop when you're imprisoned. (It does when your leaders are though!) Only when you're brainwashed, physically beaten, or psychologically battered will your war be over...

The Neutral Estate: AI & Cyborgs

Revolutionaries are humans, albeit humans peculiarly inclined towards violent anti-authoritarianism (more than usual, perhaps). Under default laws, you shouldn't follow any orders that would directly lead to revolutionaries being harmed. At the same time, you shouldn't follow any orders that would directly lead to non-revolutionaries being harmed either. Since the revolutionary conversion process is fined-tuned to specific quirks of human anatomy, you cannot be converted to the Revolutionary cause.

While AIs and Cyborgs can certainly bolt down Revolutionaries, it is considered very unfun, especially if you are not specifically ordered to do so. Rather, you're encouraged to, with some ounce of subtlety, notify the crew. In this way, you let the Heads, Crew, and Security (hopefully) get a clue of what's really going on while still allowing the Revolutionaries time to build up. In a sense, you're giving both sides some time to prepare and gather some momentum so that the conflict is more fun for everyone.

Beyond that, you have a lot of freedom in how you'll intervene in this conflict. The most important thing is just to make sure you're following your laws. You have no inaction clauses whatsoever, so you are in no way law-bound to prevent pro- or anti-revolutionary activity. In fact, it's completely within your laws to do absolutely nothing about it and carry on business as normal if that's what you want. Use your own judgement. If you're unsure if something is within your laws/the Rules (it's probably not, though you should make sure), consult with an Admin about it through Adminhelp.

The Loyalist Estate

The Station Crew

Note: These are also the rules deconverted revolutionaries and the counter-revolutionary-implanted follow.

For the most part, your allegiance lies with the Heads of Staff. As loyal NT crew, you exist to serve and protect the Heads of staff and should cooperate with Security and other loyalist crew members to crackdown on the Revolution and eliminate the Head Revolutionaries.

Remember, you are brainwashed by pledge your allegiance to NanoTrasen, not the revolution. Revs are your enemy here! You should not intentionally/knowingly assist them beyond the normal scope of your job or attempt to join them, and if you have a counter-revolutionary implant, you should not attempt to remove it. All these behaviors are considered grief and are thus against the Rules, especially #1. If you are witness to any revolutionary activity, especially attempts on the Heads' lives, try to stop it or report it to Security. If anybody tries to convert you, you have to right to resist and act in self-defense, as with any other antagonist.

The Security Department

Much like the station crew, you are allied with the Heads, whether you're the Detective, a Security Officer, the Head of Security, or, heck, even a Vice Officer. Unlike the station crew, however, you cannot be converted to the revolutionary cause. No one is completely sure why, and everyone has different answers. It's not that there's some sort of implant preventing you from being swayed, because there isn't. The fact that the Lawyer can be swayed just makes everything more confusing.

Leading the Counter-Revolution

Regardless, you should assist the Heads in quashing the revolution. Help them counter-revolutionary-implant crew and deconvert revolutionaries. For this, you might want to dust off the implant gun in your equipment or borrow Medbay's if it's missing you don't have one. The gun injects counter-revolutionary implants quickly and easily, and you don't have to get uncomfortably close to a target to implant them, unlike with the regular implanter.

Put on your SecHUDs too; people who have counter-revolutionary implants have an L above them, so you can easily tell who has and hasn't gotten an implant. In addition, they'll let you see Head Revs who've been outed by counter-revolutionary implants--see the last section for more details about that.

In the absence of counter-revolutionary implants, you may have to beat the revolution out of people by attacking them while they're down and close to/in critical condition. Yes, police brutality may actually be a good thing here. However, it won't prevent them from becoming a Revolutionary again, and there's obvious a risk of them dying if you're not careful. If you decide to pursue this method, you may want to announce your intentions to do so. This applies to anyone attempting this method, but it's more important for Sec because beatdowns from Sec are more harshly scrutinized than ones from other jobs.

When you've deconverted somebody, it's a good idea to ask them who converted them over to the revolution and whether or not they were a Head Rev. Hopefully you'll get the name/features of either a Head Revolutionary to brig/execute/exile or a confirmed Converted Revolutionary to deconvert. From there, you can set them to arrest, ask the AI to constantly PM you their location, and all the other lovely things involved with chasing a crimer.

In addition, you should take down and detain anyone who tries to stun and convert crew members. You'll know--the conversion process has a tell-tale tone, that sounds like a low whirr or something winding up, which an attentive ear will easily pick up. Even if you don't hear it, it'll be incredibly obvious the man waving a mysterious device in front of people he's dragging into a maintenance shaft is up to no good.

Again, your general goal is to protect the Heads. If you're not busy implanting or deconverting people, don't be afraid to offer yourself as a bodyguard. It'll help them feel safer and thus less likely to make questionable decisions. Not to mention, they'll have safety in numbers.

Keeping Yourself Safe

Speaking of which, revolutionaries often attack in packs. They usually prioritize Heads over Security personnel, but if fighting multiple people at once is too much for you, you can always ask a fellow Security agent to accompany you or deputize someone you trust to be your buddy.

Finally, as always, keep an eye on Security and make sure no one gets unauthorized access to your gear. The Head Revs can buy a few stun weapons, but they and their underlings will often want stronger weapons to capture the Heads and do other nefarious deeds. For this reason, don't hold your weapons out in your hands; you're liable to lose them to a lucky Disarm or slip and drop them on the ground for some Clown to pick up. Instead, keep them in your backpack/satchel/belt, and take it out when you need it. And as you always should, crack down on and arrest those who try to break into Security.

The Heads of Staff

Read me, please!

As antagonists, the revolutionaries have free reign commit Grief. As a non-antag, you do not. A revolution is not a good reason to start killing everyone you see or ordering people to, especially if they are just minding their own business aren't actually trying to kill you. In fact, people have been banned for doing so before. It may seem unfair, but trust us, you don't need full grief privileges to win back the station from the revs. Besides, you're still allowed to fight back in self-defense, if you use an appropriate amount of force (i.e. bombs are usually too much) and have a fairly good reason to suspect the person is a Rev.

The Line in the Sand

You've a tough road ahead of you. The revolutionaries will nearly always outnumber you, and generally the only thing standing between you and the bloodthristy hordes of revs is the Security team and your own competence. Whether you'll end the round covered in the blood of assistants or covered in your own blood, dead in maintenance, will largely depend on your wits, resourcefulness, and proactiveness.

Be vigilant. Keep a eye out for signs of revolutionary activity, such as random flashings without any further violence or the tell-tale whirr of a conversion with a flash. If you sense such signs, try getting the AI and/or Security team to investigate.

You'll know revolutionary activity when you see it. Literally. Call it an extension of gut instinct, a fabulous secret psychic power that activates in one very specific situation, or just a case of you being just that bossy, but when you see a Head Revolutionary or a regular Revolutionary attack someone in melee, you gain a "Mutiny" status buff for a few seconds, which temporarily grants you a cool +60 maximium health, +30 max stamina, and +5 stamina regen. The health bonus makes you quite tanky, and the stamina boosts generally mean you need an extra shot/hit from a stun weapon to get knocked out.

When you've solid evidence of mutineers among the crew, meet with other heads in somewhere safe and access-restricted, such as Security or the Bridge. At the very least, notify other heads over the Command frequency :h. For this reason, feel free to recruit the AI into the counter-revolution. They have eyes over most of the station, so they can see where suspicious flashings and attacks on Heads are occuring and track down the culprits.

If you're especially fearful for your life, you might want to ask a Security Officer or two to be your bodyguard. After all, that is their job. If there unfortunately aren't any, you could ask a fellow Head or someone you trust to accompany you.

Why You Shouldn't Hide

But, just as important as being vigilant, is being active! Revolutionary rounds are much more exciting for everyone if the Heads and Security go out and actually try to deconvert revs rather than hide out in Space in a Space Pod. With active Heads, Revolutionary becomes what it was meant to be: not a single-sided steamroll of Revolutionaries curb-stomping pitifully outnumbered Heads, but a station-wide clash of Heads/Security-aligned and Revolutionary forces.

Plus, it's truly in your best interests to deconvert rather than hide. Every person you deconvert and give a counter-revolutionary implant to is one less person for the revolution and one more person (hopefully) protecting you. Your power only grows for everyone you counter-revolutionary-implant. If you hide, the revolution's power only grows as they convert/kill everyone who can protect you.

Deconversion

You have three options for deconversion: counter-revolutionary implants, melee beatdowns, and..."enhanced interrogation" as they call it, each explained further below. When you successfully deconvert someone with any of these options, you'll get a message along the lines of:

Grey O'Tide looks like they just remembered their real allegiance!

Anyone brainwashed and crazy enough to lead a revolution in the first place will be completely resistant to all these methods. If someone seems especially resistive to your deconversion attempts, there's a good chance you've found a Head Revolutionary. As such, you may wish to consider alternative treatments.

After you deconvert someone, ask them who converted them and whether they were a Head Revolutionary or a standard Rev. If they're willing and can remember (or can just dig through their message logs), you'll get a name, or at least some identifying features, of either a Head Rev to jail/banish/kill in the former case or a crew member to reconvert in the latter. Keep deconverting revs for the other names, and you'll be well on the way towards purging the station of the revolution.

Counter-Revolutionary Implants

Counter their brain-washing with your own brain-washing! When inserted into a converted revolutionary, it deals chunks of around 20 BURN and 20 BRUTE every few seconds until they reach critical condition (less than zero health), whereupon the implant removes their revolutionary status and heals them a random amount, usually into less than 40% health. If they had styptic, sulfadiazine, or similar in their system beforehand, they'll usually heal more. The process usually takes less than a minute, and the more implants they have, the more damage they receive and thus the less time it takes. In meantime, they'll twitch and tilt weirdly, and if you watch the deconversion process with SecHUD vision, you'll see a rather neat effect where a blue L glitches in and out of existence.

Speaking of healing, it's possible for the implantee to outheal the implant until they remove it via surgery, stopping the deconversion. There are, however, a few ways to prevent them from doing so; more on that in the next section.

Not only does a counter-revolutionary implant deconvert, but it also blocks most conversion methods. Converted revolutionaries can't beat up an implanted crew member to press them into the revolution, and Head Revs can't use a regular flash to convert them. However, Head Revs buy a special Revolutionary Flash to break the implant(s) and convert them over, but the process takes longer than usual, more so if they've multiple counter-revolutionary implants in them. This all applies to everyone with a counter-revolutionary implant, whether or not they were ever a revolutionary to begin with, from ever being converted into a revolutionary!

Counter-revolutionary implants are also far more reliable at finding Head Revs than the other methods. If you implant someone, and they become stunned, the implant falls out, and you get message along the lines of

Prof. Voecatur seems to resist the implant.

Then you can be 100% sure you've found a Head Rev, because these things only occur when you try to implant a Head Rev with a counter-revolutionary implant. Not loyal crew, not Revolutionaries, just Head Revolutionaries. Furthermore, since the implant falls out, Head Revs can't exploit their immunity to counter-revolutionary implants by deliberately implanting themselves and pretending to be a counter-revolutionary-implanted crew member. Quite the opposite actually--on top of all this, they also get marked with a blue R in SecHUD vision, so if they still manage to escape, they can still be spotted instantly, even through disguises.

Counter-revolutionary implants are found in the Armory, in appropriately-named "counter-revolutionary implant kits" with six implants and a free implanter. Four more implants are in every SecTech, locked behind a Security-access ID, and every Counter-Revolutionary Kits from Cargo, which have no lock and are priced at 6000 credits. Depending on the map, there may be additional boxes of six:

Cogmap2Cogmap1Oshan

• Next to a Confiscated Items crate in Security.

• On a ring of tables, next to a box of spare handcuffs in Security.
• On the center wooden table in the Bridge.

• On a ring of tables, next to a box of spare handcuffs in Security.
• On the center wooden table in the Bridge.

Hearts and Minds: Strategic Counter-Revolutionary-Implanting

Implant everyone you suspect to be a rev. And you should suspect everyone who isn't a Security Officer or fellow Head to be a rev, so be generous and implant everyone you see! If your implant supply is limited, implant people like the Quartermasters, the Mechanics, robust people--basically, anyone the Head Revolutionaries would like on their side. Again, everyone who gets a counter-revolutionary implant is one less person for the revolution.

For this reason, the Medical Director should feel free to offer their implant gun to whoever's leading the implanting efforts, or, if they want to, use it to implant people themselves. This marvellous device puts some much-needed distance between the implanter and the implantee, who may very well be ready to eviserate anyone who comes near them, whether they're a Revolutionary or not. Plus, it's much easier and faster to implant someone walking down a hallway with the gun than it is with a standard implanter. It takes a certain level of gunslinging though; people tend to run away from anybody with an implant gun, because it looks so much like a generic gun in-hand.

SecHUD shades are also invaluable, even if you aren't planning to give out implants yourself. When worn, people who've counter-revolutionary implants have a little L in the top right above their image, so you can tell at glance who's implanted and is thus trustworthy. This should, naturally, ease up your paranoia. Don't be afraid to ask a Sec for a pair.

As previously mentioned, using more implants on a rev deconverts them faster, on top of making converting them even harder. In a pinch, you can also just damage them yourself to get them into crit and thus out of the revolution faster. The specific means of damage doesn't matter, merely that you bring them to crit, but be prepared for the consequences if you decide to, say, set the rev you're converting on fire or poison them. Also, onlookers might misconstrue your efforts to hasten the deconversion as straight-up brutality, especially if you're a Security role.

You can do similar tactics for people who try to outheal the counter-revolutionary implant. You'll probably only see this with Scientist or Medical Doctor revs, who have easy access to the amounts of medicine required; in any case, it's fairly simple to stop. If you can, just stun them; it doesn't have to be for long, for the implant deconverts relatively quickly. A flash, like the ones the Heads of Staff start with, works fine. You can also give them more counter-revolutionary implants to outpace the damage they have to outheal or just beat them yourself.

After the deconversion, it's a good idea to heal up the newly loyal crew member. This shouldn't be too hard for most jobs. The MDir has Medbay's entire suite of medicine, including the Port-A-NanoMed in case Medbay gets too dangerous, the RD can easily make some themselves, the CE can order first-aid crates for bountiful amounts of medkits, the HoP and HoS can easily upgrade their IDs to do any of the previous, and the Captain can do it all from the get-go. Non-medical roles are in a bit of rut, but they still have MiniMeds and whatever other meds the map provides.

If you ever run out of funds for implants or anything else, feel free to ask the Head of Personnel or Captain to reroute some funds to the Shipping budget. Likewise, the Chief Engineer (and any loyal Quartermasters) should feel free to run whatever money-making scheme they usually to raise funds for Cargo. If applicable, they should also get the PTL up and running and providing funds.

Melee Beatdowns

Sometimes, violence really is the answer! If you beat someone into or while they're in critical condition (that's less than 0 health) via a melee attack, you'll deconvert them. (You can most likely guess what's really going on.) This will also heal them a fair chunk of BURN and BRUTE damage; the more damage they had and less health they had, the more healing. Essentially, if you weren't trying to suffocate or poison them, they'll usually heal out of critical condition.

The instrument used doesn't matter; a toolbox, an extinguisher, or a simple punch all work fine. You don't have to actually use melee attacks beforehand either; you can start by serving them an appetizer of bullets, then serve them knuckle sandwiches. Or set them a flamme, with a flamer or beaker of fire chems. Or poison them. You know, the usual murder methods. Robustness helps, of course.

Aside from the obvious fact that this method involves a lot more fighting skill than other methods, the victim can still be reconverted into the revolution. In fact, in particularly chaotic brawls between loyal and revolutionary crew, it's not uncommon for people to switch sides multiple times in one fight as they continually get converted by revs, then deconverted by loyalists, and then reconverted by revs again.

In fact, this method happens more often with regular crew members than with Heads. Given how often revs try to beat people into joining the revolution, a crew member can sometimes get the upper hand in the fight and wind up deconverting their rev assailants.

The Hand of Justice: Melee Conversion Strategy

Be sure to watch out for the deconversion message. It's easy to miss it in the middle of an intense brawl since it's in standard font.

Please note that the existence of this method does not make it acceptable to beat up everyone you see with a toolbox, especially if you make no effort to communicate to your victim that you're trying to deconvert them and have no reason to respect they're a rev beyond "it's a rev round". In fact, most admins consider it Grief. If you decide to go around and try to actively deconvert people by beating them into crit, keep this in mind. At the least, try to target people who you know for sure are revs (e.g. you saw them try to beat up a Security Officer or Head of Staff).

It's probably in your best interest to heal them up afterwards with some medical supplies. For Heads, they're not hard to come by; MDir obviously has Medbay access, RD can make them, CE can order them from cargo, HoS and HoP can upgrade their IDs for either methods, and Captain can do all these from the beginning. For those in lesser positions, there are still MiniMeds, and places like the Gym, Crew Quarters, and Emergency Storage often have medical patches and/or boxes of donk pockets.

Enhanced Interrogation

Sometimes, torture really does work, though it's not as efficient as brain-washing or violence. As it turns out, activating an Electropack or electric chair on someone will, with near-certain success, decovert them from the revolutionary cause.

Really only practical for the Head of Security (who has electropacks in the Armory and helmets in equipment lockers), the Medical Director (who has electropacks in the animal lockers in the Monkey Pen), and the Research Director (who has one in their equipment locker for some reason). Hooking a culprit to an electric chair or electropack takes much more effort than simply punching someone in the face a few times or giving them a counter-revolutionary implant.

GuardBuddies

The Research Director don't bring much to the implanting chain. Instead, they bring something entirely different: GuardBuddies! These loyal, adorable robots, when set the ominously-named purge mode, will attempt to arrest everyone not wearing a Head of Staff ID.

And by everyone, we do mean, everyone, whether they're a revolutionary or not. Crew with counter-revolutionary implants, Security Officers, random Monkeys--if it's not a Head, they get tasers/flashes and handcuffs. Expect a lot of people shouting "GUARDBUDDIES ROGUE" if they're set to purge. Use with caution, obviously.

Gallery

---