Wraith
Where most other antagonist roles exist to make you afraid of some maniac with a fire extinguisher coming to get you, the Wraith exists to make you afraid of the station itself. Whether it's malevolent poltergeists with a mean streak a mile wide, otherworldly creatures hunting you from the dark, or plagues of rot and grime that will make medical look clean, wraiths have a wide array of spooky powers they can use to terrorize (or annoy) the crew. Given enough time and corpses (and given all the other baddies they appear with on Space Station 13, there will be corpses), they can progress from an inconvenience to a terrifying juggernaut of murder. They have their downsides, though, and a clever chef with some salt can be far more dangerous to a wraith than an army of supercops armed to the teeth.
Base Wraith Abilities
First and foremost, wraiths are ghosts. They cannot be seen by the living unless manifested, they can hear everything on the station, they can talk to and see normal ghosts, fly through walls, all of it. They can use their powers while incorporeal as well, and are effectively invulnerable in this state. When wraiths use the Haunt ability or float over salt, they manifest in a physical form for about minute, able to be injured and even killed.
If killed while manifested, though, a wraith isn't necessarily dead. Wraiths can survive being banished from physical form once - the second time kills them for good. Moreover, there's strings attached: when banished, they lose all of their built-up WP and, far more cripplingly, any WP regeneration bonuses from Absorb Corpse. The consolation prize is that Absorb Corpse's cooldown is reset as well.
Wraiths can also move items by click-dragging them from one tile to another, similar to the Telekinetic Pull genetics ability. This can not only do minor damage depending on the flung item, but also set up dangerous animated/possessed item rampages if left unnoticed.
Wraith abilities work off the creatively named Wraith Points, or WP, a resource that passively increases over time. The rate of regeneration can be permanently increased by absorbing corpses, or temporarily increased by using Haunt near a crowd or possessing a Revenant. There's no upper limit to banked points or regeneration rate, but banishment resets both.
Listed below are the basic abilities a wraith is granted before choosing one of the three paths, and will be maintained once the new path is chosen. Alterations to any base powers will be listed in its appropriate section.
Icon | Name | Cooldown | WP Cost | Description |
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Haunt | 60 seconds | 0 Points | Temporarily become corporeal to scare people and/or gloat. This ability will remain active until used again, with the second use returning you to your incorporeal state. Every witness present gives you an increased rate of WP regeneration. |
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Whisper | 2 seconds | 1 Point | Send a spooky ghost message to somebody, which they hear as "A netherworld voice whispers in your ear..." This, alongside Blood Writing, is your only way to communicate with the living. |
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Blood Writing | 0 seconds | 2 Points | Draws a single letter or pictogram of your choice on tile, complete with fancy animation. |
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Absorb Corpse | 45+ seconds | 20 Points | Skeletonizes a targeted corpse in a cloud of black smoke with a big red message, and permanently increases your rate of WP regeneration. Must be used on a relatively fresh corpse. Cooldown starts at 45 seconds and scales exponentially with each use, but is reset by banishment. Doesn't work when the corpse has at least 25 units of formaldehyde inside it, instead removing it from the corpse and activating the cooldown. |
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Spook | 30 seconds once activated | 20 Points to Mark | The first use Marks an area, and the second use lets you choose a spooky thing to do to that area:
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Decay | 60 seconds | 30 Points | An ability with two different functions:
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Command | 20 seconds | 50 Points | Hurls a few nearby loose objects at the chosen target. |
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Animate Object | 30 seconds | 100 Points | Causes an object to come to life and try to murder anything and everything nearby. |
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Possess Object | 150 seconds | 300 Points | Puts your consciousness inside an object for a limited time, letting you fly it around and use it to murder people, all while taunting them (somehow). |
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Evolve | 0 seconds | 150 points | Once three corpses are absorbed, the Evolve ability can be used to pick one of the three evolution paths:
Note: The three corpse's absorbed requirement will not be required to evolve during the Disaster gamemode. |
Wraith Paths
Past the basic wraith form, three unique paths are available in the form of an ability in its original power set. Each has their own ability set granted on top of the base wraith's, allowing for different styles of gameplay. The different forms also have their own weaknesses to go along with their individual strengths.
Path 1: The Harbinger
This particular path focuses on summoning, with most of its additional abilities being dedicated to raising the dead or void-like beings. They can be identified through their summons, listed below.
Icon | Name | Cooldown | WP Cost | Description |
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Raise Skeleton | 60 seconds | 100 Points | Commands the skeleton inside a corpse to detonate out and free its brothers still trapped in the living. By murdering them. Best used in combination with Absorb Corpse, because only completely decomposed cadavers can be raised as skeletons. This ability can also be used on closets, spawning one skeleton per closet. |
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Create Void Portal | 180 seconds | 150 Points | Creates a summoning circle that slowly grows in power. Each mob has different point weighting, which can be seen below.
As the power of the portal increases, the number of mobs able to spawn will also increase, capping at a total of 30 portal points. Power is gained over time in increments of 5, starting off with a base of 10 points. |
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Summon Void Creature | 150 seconds | 400 Points | Sends a request to ghosts of players to join and offers a choice between three creatures to pick from, meant to aid the harbinger:
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Raise Revenant | 300 seconds | 1000 Points | Allows you to possess a corpse and empower it as a Revenant, so you can murder people with their co-workers. Must be used on a relatively fresh corpse. |
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Speak to Summons | 0 seconds | 0 Points | Allows the Harbinger to speak to player summons that have spawned. |
Path 2: The Plaguebringer
The Plaguebringer path is a debuff and poison based path with a large array of abilities. This path could be more difficult to identify in early stages, but has some unique summons and mechanics that can make the Plaguebringer easier to spot and counter.
Icon | Name | Cooldown | WP Cost | Description |
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Curse of Blindness | 45 seconds | 40 Points | When inflicted with this curse, the affected will experience gradual eye damage over time in small increments of 10. Eventually fully blinds them if not cured. |
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Curse of Weakness | 45 seconds | 40 Points | Causes regular slowdowns in movement of the afflicted being, as well as drowsiness and reduced stamina regeneration. |
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Curse of Blood | 45 seconds | 40 Points | Curses the target with the hemophilia trait, resulting in severely increased blood loss from wounds. The afflicted will also experience random puking of blood. |
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Curse of Rot | 45 seconds | 40 Points | Makes the afflicted vomit at random intervals, and prevents them from consuming any food. |
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Curse of Death | 45 seconds | 80 Points | The final, brutal curse that can be placed on a being once all four prior curses have been placed on them. Once afflicted, the target begins to shake and be ripped apart. The curse completes once the target gibs, releasing a large amount of miasma. Counts as a consume, increasing point generation. |
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Defile | 50 seconds | 50 Points | When this ability is used on a food item or container, it will inject 10u of a deadly chemical of your choosing; the possible options are listed below. Though it cannot be used directly on a living being, a strategic Plaguebringer could lay low and poison an item as it is served at the bar. |
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Summon Plague Rat | 300 seconds | 0 Points | When used, prompts ghosts for a chance to respawn as a plague rat. These plague rats spawn in their weakest form with three abilities - one for eating filth and gibs (Eat filth), one for a biting a target with small dose of rat spit (Bite), and one for moving down disposal pipes (Get in the disposals). The rat can increase in size by using their Eat filth ability.
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Create Rot Hulk | 90 seconds | 120 Points | Checks the surrounding area for cleanable messes such as blood, vomit, fungus, etc. to summon a condensed mass of filth. The rot hulk will chase and attack people near them, exploding when killed or low health in a shower of poisoning gibs. The hulk is stronger if there is more filth around. |
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Speak to Summons | 0 seconds | 0 Points | Allows the Plaguebringer to speak to player summons that have spawned. |
Path 3: The Trickster
The Trickster path is a more stealthy path that is aimed to trick, confuse and terrify the crew with their range of abilities. This path could be difficult to identify early, but listening for out of place sounds and watching out for crew behaving oddly can make the Trickster easier to spot and counter.
Icon | Name | Cooldown | WP Cost | Description |
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Trickster Haunt | 30 seconds | 0 Points | Upon selecting Trickster, the standard Haunt Ability is enhanced. Along with the WP gain, Trickster gains Possession Points which allows the use of the Possession ability. Trickster can also take the form of any player using the "Choose Haunt Appearance" ability. |
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Choose Haunt Appearance | 0 seconds | 0 Points | Allows the Trickster to target and take on the appearance of any human target. The target can be alive, dead, missing any number of limbs/head, or any mutantrace. |
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Mass Whisper | 10 seconds | 5 points | Allows the Trickster to send a message to every player in their vicinity. |
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Creeping Dead | 60 seconds | 80 points | Curses the target with the "Creeping Dread" status. Has no effect on targets that remain in lit up areas, but the effects becomes more detrimental the longer the target stays in the dark. Causes shakes, hallucinations and minor damage, and eventually develops into a heart attack if the target remains in the dark for too long. |
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Hallucinate | 45 seconds | 30 points | Causes the target to experience Hallucinations. These Hallucinations can range from hearing explosions, hearing fake announcements, and seeing blood pour from the walls. |
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Fake Sound | 4 seconds | 5 points | Allows the Trickster to play a sound from a given list at a specific location. |
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Rune Trap | 30 seconds | 50 points | While manifested, allows the Trickster to deploy a one use floor based trap that activates when a person runs over it, and can be avoided when walked or crawled over. The trap is invisible in the dark, but visible in the light, and can be broken with melee. The selectable effects that occur when a trap is triggered are:
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Possession | 180 seconds | 400 points | Allows the Trickster to gradually takeover and Possess a Target for 60 seconds. If you Possess someone who's handcuffed, you automatically uncuff yourself upon Possession, unless they have silver ones on. The Trickster must have accumulated 50 Possession Points before being able to possess. Possession Points are accumulated via using Haunt. |
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Make Poltergeist | 300 seconds | 600 points | When used, prompts all Ghosts with the option to become a Poltergeist. Abilities detailed in their own section below. On the Roleplay servers, there's a maximum of two Poltergeists per Trickster. |
Poltergeists
Basically, mini-wraiths. When this ability's used, it sends a prompt to all eligible Ghosts asking if they want to be a poltergeist; the criteria as same as the one for random event antags (i.e. not DNR, not logged out), but it doesn't accept dead Antagonists. Shortly thereafter, the game then randomly picks from those who accepted the offer and spawns them as a poltergeist with randomly-generated names like "Lritho the Trickster" and snazzy animations. Poltergeists are considered antagonists, and they should follow the orders of their master, the wraith that spawned them.
Poltergeists function much like wraiths. They can pass through walls and other solid objects but can't see through walls, and if they past over a salt pile, they'll get manifested. The wraith telekinesis passive is passed down to poltergeists, which allows them to throw items that they are near, although they will only go one tile if the Poltergeist is not adjacent to the item being manipulated. They also get the following Wraith abilities:
- Animate Object
- Blood Writing
- Command
- Decay
- Haunt (slightly different in that it manifests them for 15 seconds, rather than 30)
- Spook
- Whisper
Poltergeists can also click on their master to automatically follow them, still being able to use their abilities as if they were still at their anchor beacon and having better point generation.
Poltergeists also have one unique ability called Retreat, which will allow the poltergeist to immediately fall back to either their Wraith master or their anchor. This costs 100 WP to do.
Aside from Haunt having shorter duration, these abilities are otherwise same as the Wraith versions, i.e. same cooldown, same point cost, and same functionality. Notice they have no Raise Skeleton, no Absorb Corpse, no Possess Object, and no Raise Revenant.
If a poltergeist strays 15 tiles from the portal or 12 tiles from the Wraith that spawned them, they take damage up to 50% of their health as well as not being able to cast certain abilities. Unlike the Wraith, they can only die once; one death and they're back to being a regular Ghost.
Revenants
A Revenant is a telekinetically controlled corpse-puppet used by wraiths to step their game up from dangerous pranks to full-throttle massacres. Wraiths inhabit fresh corpses to create revenants, which provide them with a physical body to interact with the world freely. This allows for a much, much broader ability to screw with the station, as a wraith can temporarily do anything a normal traitor could, like mixing up horrible concoctions at a chemistry machine or rigging giant bombs.
Revenants enjoy an increased rate of WP regeneration, stun immunity, ignore stamina penalties, lose their normal set of powers, and gain a smaller, much deadlier set while active. However, they constantly lose health and cannot be healed, so your time is limited. Visually, revenants are easily identified by their distinct sinister black aura, and upon "death", they dissipate into black smoke.
Being the Ghost with the Most (Evil): Wraith Tips and Strategy
In General
- You are not invincible, no matter how much it may seem like it sometimes. It only takes one twitchy guy with a weapon in his backpack and a salt shaker to ruin you.
- There exists at least one free corpse on the station every round. Eat it first!
- Wraiths don't appear alone, so try to lay low for a little while and look for the other antagonists. Scavenge the corpses they'll inevitably leave in their wake for more WP regeneration, or try to strike deals with them with Whisper. A wraith with someone to feed it a steady stream of corpses can get very, very scary, but be warned that some antagonists might not trust you to not murder them and raise the alarm on you.
- Plan for things going terribly. You may not want to absorb every corpse you find just in case you get banished, but you may not want to leave any corpses undrained either in case the crew gets wise and starts spacing/gibbing/reclaiming corpses immediately.
- You're not that great at outright killing people without isolating someone or being lucky. Be a scavenger; try to make a bad situation worse for someone already pretty fucked up rather than try to kill a healthy person. The crew will amaze you with how many ways they can kill themselves.
Making the Most of Base Abilities
- You can't use Decay on a Cyborg to remove its laws, nor can you use it on a cyborg frame to make the borg it's built from have no laws.
- Use Decay on Beepsky and on his victims if they try to run. Watch the fireworks.
- With Decay you are able to emag stuff without the usual risk of being seen by others, and that can be extremely helpful for setting up traps and ambushes. For example, using Decay on a phone causes it to ring even when there's no caller on the other side and rigs it to explode when picked up, tearing holes in the station and depriving humans of their precious air.
- Haunt can give you a ton of WP when used in a large crowd, but a large crowd is also in prime position to wreck you when you're at your most vulnerable. Try haunting just out of reach of a few people, like behind a table, window, or door, or in space nearby. Not only is it effective, but also it annoys the shit out of people! Just make damn sure the AI won't open the door for them, or that they won't zap you with lasers through the windows.
- Whenever someone has a gun drawn, use Command to knock them down, immediately use Possess Object on the gun, and shoot them with it.
- Use Command to throw exploding tomatoes. They will chain-reaction and destroy the entire stack, and Botanists will fucking hate you (the ones you don't kill with a possessed chainsaw immediately after, that is).
- If someone is making loaves, wait for them to make a high-tier one and Command it at them for an effectively instant kill.
- Is the chaplain pissing you off? Command and Mass Command may not work on them when you click them directly, but if they're stunned, standing still, or distracted by animated objects, targeting the floor under them works just as well.
- Spook may seem harmless, but some cunning applications can save your ass or cause mass chaos in a clutch. For instance: try using Possess Object on the fire extinguisher in Toxins Storage, bashing open a plasma tank, then using Spook to pop a few light bulbs.
Using Possess Object
- Any object that can deal damage can be used to attack a human. ANY object.
- Any object that can interact with other objects by being used on them can be done with a possessed item. Be careful, inserting something into something else will kick you out.
- Any object that can be used by clicking on it can be activated by clicking yourself (if that fails use Page Down or whatever "use item in hand" is). You can be a self-playing saxophone... or a self-detonating grenade/pipe bomb.
- You ignore salt while possessing an item (or a Revenant). In fact, as a possessed item, you can scuff up salt piles on the floor, removing them.
- Engineers or QMs massing lasers to deal with you/another antagonist? Possess one and laugh with sadistic glee when you realize it can still shoot things.
- If you possess food or drinks, you can force-feed yourself to people. Let the chef know what people REALLY think of his cooking.
- You can talk as a possessed item, and if you possess a radio headset or station-bounced radio, you can talk over the radio! Gloat and crackle like a supervillain to those lowly mortals without any fear of the retaliation a regular mortal villain would receive.
- You can manually leave the item by clicking the red X in the corner. Good for a quick possession and then abandoning the item so you don't get caught.
- You can use Possess Object on AI law modules. You cannot change the law written on it, but you can upload whatever law was written on it simply by clicking on a lawrack. The applications of this should be immediately obvious.
Path-Specific
For Harbingers
- The skeleton from Raise Skeleton is extremely fragile, and will die in one hit to just about anything, but is incredibly strong and knocks people down very easily. Use it to gang up on someone who can't fight back.
- As stated before use Absorb Corpse and Raise Skeleton powers to get both increased WP regeneration AND a loyal servant that will gladly help you find more corpses to consume/resurrect.
- Skeletons don't like to be inside lockers. If you summon a bone boy in one they will kick it open. If they can't for some reason (e.g. the locker is card locked), they will then proceed to beat it until it falls apart. You can use this to expose some sensitive equipment for other antags to steal or to create delayed traps.
- You can't summon a portal unless you are materialized, so make sure that a random staff assistant doesn't find you the moment you prepare to open one.
- Creatures aren't summoned directly on the portal tile but instead spawn in an area around it. You can exploit this by putting the portal in a out of reach area and having your summons appear beyond the obstacle.
- Bonus points if it is in a single tile surrounded by walls as monsters will be summoned on the other side, confusing/scaring everyone as horrific monsters will appear all around them with no discernible source.
- Monsters with stamina draining attacks like Brullbars work fantastically with Decay. If a security officer is fighting them, use the ability then laugh with pleasure as they are stunned and ripped to pieces by the abomination.
- Revenants get faster WP regeneration, but their abilities still cost a shitload of points. Try to raise a decent buffer of points and regeneration before going nuts with a revenant instead of beelining for the first corpse you see the second you hit 1000 points.
- Shockwave gives Mass Command tons of scrap metal and broken glass to hurl at people.
- Use the Summon Void Creature ability often. Dead players are usually bored out of their minds and will take any chance to cause some chaos.
- It takes a while to summon the void creature, and it is very visible, so avoid doing this too close to your target, or they will just run away.
Ghostbustin': Fighting a Wraith
General Wraith Weaknesses
Haunt heavily incentivizes manifesting near a bunch of people to get an extra infusion of WP, and a physical Wraith is extremely vulnerable. They are slow, have no hands, and have only their basic powers to fight back against someone who wants them dead. A barrage of laser fire will banish a corporeal wraith very quickly.
Wraiths can only survive a single banishment - going down a second time permanently puts them out of commission. Moreover, getting banished wipes away all their Wraith points and any WP boosts from absorbing corpses. Banishment also resets the Absorb Corpse cooldown, as consolation for the wraith, but if you make sure there fewer usable corpses around, they may not have a second chance to get as strong as their first manifestation.
Salt
Wraiths are slippery bastards, but like proper ghosts, have one major weakness: regular ol' table salt. Lines of salt on the ground force an incorporeal wraith that passes over them to manifest, and so can be used to protect chokepoints, force a wraith into a trap, and trip up a wraith that's not paying attention to where they're going.
It should be noted, however, that salt lines can be disrupted by bungling idiots running across them, giving the wraith a chance to sneak through. Walking does not scuff up a tile full of salt. Would-be ghostbusters are well advised to lay their salt lines across walls, with redundant layers, and/or in low-traffic areas. Make sure to alert people to the importance of using the walk intent on salt while beating the bejesus out of politely reprimanding those who don't listen.
Spirit Candles
In the event you encounter a particularly evasive Wraith who navigates your salt lines, there is another option: spirit candles. These spooky decorations have a very effective power against incorporeal ghosties - when lit, the spirit candle lights up a 12 by 12 tile area in which a hidden Wraith or Poltergeist can be seen. Once you spot them within the spirit candles' effect, you can then use it inhand to completely manifest them into corporeal form, allowing for a good smacking from your local chaplain or anyone with a fire extinguisher. Be wise with your usage, they can only do this once per skull.
The Chaplain
The chaplain enjoys immunity to many of a wraith's tricks, which lets them fight on even footing with an opponent that otherwise fights very dirty. Chaplains still need to rely on ambushing a wraith using Haunt or luring them over salt, but once a Wraith is manifested, they can beat the bejesus out of it with their bible to banish it with the speed of lasers. They can even fight toe to toe with Revenants, as they can't be Crushed, knocked or Pushed back, knocked down with Shockwave, and can use the bible to deal large amounts of damage. A Wraith's best bet against a particularly relentless chaplain is to use ghostly mobility to go spook people somewhere the chaplain isn't, and failing that, take merry advantage of the fact that the chaplain's immunities don't cover them from indirect methods of attack.
Proper Corpse Handling
Consider also whipping up several batches of formaldehyde as well. When over 25 units is injected into a body, not only will it prevent decomposition, but when a Wraith attempts to use Absorb Corpse on it the effect will fail, removing the formaldehyde from the body and making harmless white smoke. Keep in mind however that formaldehyde will not prevent a Wraith taking control of a body as a revenant.
Specific Paths
Countering a Harbinger
Because most of the Harbinger's damage is physical, wearing armor while combatting it can strongly benefit you. A good melee weapon can do the trick against both it and its summons - just be sure not to let the void hounds and tentacle fiends get hold of you. Securing the area around the Harbinger's void portals would also be in good interest, both to keep unprepared crew out and the dangers emerging from the portal in.
As for revenants, for all their horrifying power when given sufficient WP to fuel their mojo, they are still rotting corpses. They're slow and incredibly obvious, and will eventually fall apart into a pile of bones even if left alone. That said, they're still superb at murdering isolated people because of Push, Touch of Evil, and Crush and can handle small crowds with Mass Command and Shockwave. Unless you're a particularly gutsy chaplain, getting into a fistfight with a revenant is an incredibly bad idea - running away and firing lasers or buckshot wildly is a far more effective strategy. Try to get the AI to lock it down in an isolated room if possible, and pray it doesn't have the WP reserves to just blast a hole through the walls and doors anyway. When in doubt, run for your life, because anybody who gets killed by the revenant (except victims of Crush) is leaving a corpse behind that will fuel the wraith if left alone.
Countering a Plaguebringer
The enemy to this wraith path are janitors, chaplains, or anyone with a mop and a chemical dispenser. Plaguebringers and their plague rat summons rely on filth to grow, so a bottle of space cleaner can go a long way. When encountering curses, a splash of holy water or bible beating can cure an afflicted person. In addition, a Plaguebringer cannot curse a person standing within the chapel. As with the base wraith, salt lines will force them to manifest.
A Plaguebringer is also unable to consume any corpse that is not yet rotten or inflicted with 60 tox damage, meaning keeping corpses reclaimed or embalmed can help keep this path at bay.
Countering a Trickster
Trickster is at its strongest when there is plenty of darkness to go around as a lot of their abilities rely on darkness to be fully effective. Keeping the station well lit by replacing broken lightbulbs/tubes, having Quartermasters order a huge amount of candles, and making sure that the Engineers are doing a good enough job keeping the station supplied with power will prevent a Trickster from effectively using a portion of its kit.
A Trickster also needs to be manifesting with Haunt frequently to get the most use out of its Possession ability. An attentive crew looking around for people acting strangely, such as those walking around not interacting with anything, should be able to spot who is real, and who is the Trickster. If you're unsure, a quick toolbox to the face will kick the Trickster out of its mimicked form and reveal it for a full 30 seconds.
Supplementary Video
Jobs on Space Station 13 | ||
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Command & Security |
Captain · Head of Security · Head of Personnel · Chief Engineer · Research Director · Medical Director · Security Officer · Detective · Security Assistant · Nanotrasen Security Consultant | |
Medical & Research |
Geneticist · Roboticist · Scientist · Medical Doctor | |
Engineering | Quartermaster · Miner · Engineer | |
Civilian | Chef · Bartender · Botanist · Rancher · Janitor · Chaplain · Mail Courier · Staff Assistant · Radio Host · Clown · Gimmick jobs | |
Jobs of the Day | Dungeoneer · Barber · Waiter · Lawyer · Tourist · Musician · Boxer | |
Antagonist Roles | With own mode | Arcfiend · Blob · Changeling · Gang Member · Flockmind · Nuclear Operative · Spy Thief · Traitor · Revolutionary · Vampire · Wizard |
Others | Grinch · Hunter · Krampus · Werewolf · Wraith · Wrestler · Zombie · Gimmick antagonist roles | |
Special Roles | Artificial Intelligence · Battler · Cluwne · Critter · Cyborg · Ghost · Ghostdrone · Monkey · Santa Claus |