Critter

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Critters are life forms with simple behavior patterns. They come in a variety of forms, ranging from benign to horrific monsters that will destroy you instantly. Critters do not take damage in the same way humans, cyborgs and monkeys do. They are immune to atmospheric conditions. They can move through space as if they had a jetpack and can safely stroll through a room full of knockout gas. The only way to harm a critter is through brute force damage, lethal guns, such as energy guns or RP-4 phaser guns, and fire. Because many hostile critters can quickly overpower a human at close quarters, the latter two are generally the only safe way to engage them.

Some critters appear normally on the station, such as George the dog, the chef's sidekick Remy, RD's Heisenbee, the docile bat Dr. Acula in medbay and the captain's lovable pet cat Jones. Rock worms have a way of showing up around miners. Skeletons can pop up when a wizard or wraith descends on the station. Telescience can summon critters through teleport accidents, and other beings lurk in the various dark corners of space on other z-levels. And of course, critters can also be spawned by a bored admin.

While critters can ride in Space Pods, they can't actually pilot them. This goes for both critters that are coded as objects and critters that are bona-fide mobs.

Critters can appear in varying degrees of quality. It will be part of their name. The best of their breed will sparkle to indicate that they're a pretty big deal in the space animal kingdom. Food made from these critters will retain their full name, e.g. healthy cockroach-meat taco.

Robust NPCs

These are a subgroup of mobs (distinct from critters) who are more evolved than your stock cockroach. Robust NPCs are mobile humans who operate by the same rules of existence as human players. They take damage like humans, drugs work on them, and they can be grabbed, disarmed, restrained and dressed like human players. They're advanced enough to pick up anything they find lying around, and they're violent jerks so they'll try to kill people with it. The only thing that doesn't work on them that works on regular people is borging and cloning.

Robust NPCs come in many forms. Monkeys are the most common form encountered, though they tend to be passive and only fight like violent jerks when provoked. Their evil barrel brethren, on the other hand, skip the "when provoked" part entirely. Hyper-aggressive humans can also rarely appear from telescience accidents(?) and chemical life reactions. There are also Syndicate variants of these hyper-aggressive humans, equipped with guns. Hope to God you don't see these.

Because of how dangerous they can be, you should avoid making these guys unless you're an antagonist.

Mob NPCs

Some creatures fall outside the previously mentioned groups, in that they are not critters, but mobs with AIholders! While the difference to the everyday player isn't all too sizable, codewise they are far, FAR complicated, and as such can (usually) be affected by the same things as players. Consider them a middle ground between critters and humans- although some of them can bleed, and might even have a few organs, they're still a few steps down the evolutionary chain from you.

Notable examples of AI-controlled mobs you'll (hopefully not) find around station are chickens, sawflies, and flockdrones

Most of them, however, exist to tie the place together like a good rug. The seas around Oshan Lab, for example, wouldn't be nearly as lively without all those exotic fish. One of your first stops on the way to space adventures in a pod is the space diner. It is the adopted home of Shitty Bill, Father Grife, and ol' Donald "Don" Glabs, a rather talkative trio with rich personalities and the inclination for drugs and alcohol.

Playable Critters

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Like the aforementioned monkeys, these critters are distinct from regular NPC critters like mice and roaches, which actually fall under objects, and actually count as mobs, albeit as a subgroup confusingly also named critters. Though they can't bleed, get infected with pathogens or diseases, or be buckled to a chair (well, except for one), they still share many qualities with humans. Almost all of them can be stunned or knocked unconscious, and experience the TOUCH effects of chems. Set them on fire, and they will burn. Grab them, and you may suplex them. Feed them floorpills, and they can go on bad trips and vomit, though most lack chemical reservoirs for more lasting damage.

PC Critters are created through various machinations throughout the station. Some are bored Ghosts loitering about in the corporeal plane, some are Baleful Polymorph victims, some are living changeling limbs, some...are something in-between.

Ghost Critters

Congratulations! You died and, by choosing to forgo any chance of being cloned or made into a cyborg to Respawn as Animal, have reincarnated as a critter! You can walk through people and doors, open windoors if they're not-access locked (and open them if you have an ID with the right access of course), and breath in space! Unfortunately, like Krampus, you are also an ungodly nightmare that haunts the dreams of gods, shackled solely by an social obligation to not be a dirty metagamer and various mechanical restrictions:

• Very little health (A few bare-handed punches will instantly kill you.)
• Too simple-minded to use most computers or fly Space Pods (the latter is true of all critters, but it's particularly relevant for you).
• Limited to just one hand slot and a nonfunctional Bite/Gnaw slot.
• Too weak to pull or hold most items bigger than small in size.
  • Even then, can't hold potentially dangerous weapons, like flashes, screwdrivers, or beakers.
• Cannot read or write anything beyond basic pictographs.
• Humans and silicons cannot understand what you are saying (though you can understand them just fine).
• Can't strip people who are alive.
• Can't Point at people or things. (So you can't point at the Traitor that killed you or their discarded bag of gear.)
• Can't punch people into critical condition.
• Disarms and grabs do nothing.
• Lengthly timeout between each life. After you die as a non-ghost-critter, you need to wait 3 minutes to become one. After your first death as a ghost critter, you need to wait 10 minutes! Mentor and admin mice have much shorter timeouts.
• Only able to nibble at food. You can get a few bites out of food, but you can't take any bites out of it, i.e. you won't be able to eat the Chef's 13-course dinner.
  • The chemical benefits you get out of it are also limited. Eating food still applies the INGEST effects of the reagents inside, but they'll be limited since you'll only get up to 3 units worth, and you can only get the effects once per food, ever. Eating food also technically just "copies" the chems inside it; you don't actually remove any reagents from the food.

Simply put, like the Ghost Drones, this is not a second life or chance for revenge, but an alternative to being a Ghost. While you have many restrictions, you have one simple objective: survive!

Mugshot	Critter	Notes
	Cockroach	Prove that Franz Kafka was wrong and live a comfortable, fulfilling life as a modern human in a cockroach body. Use the fact that your exoskeleton color matches your corpse's hair color to prove your individualism.
	Space mouse	Your fur color will be the same color as your corpse's hair. Be the envy of all the space mice and live knowing you died and dyed fashionably.
	Space Dog	You're a sentient canine. Become man's best friend! or, station's most feared beast (ha not really). Speak to other dogs that are somehow capable of human speech.
	Butterfly	Flutter around. Make strange chirping noises. Attempt to be a vague notion of rebirth and reincarnation .
	Boogie Bot (Spacebux Purchase)	Do The Robot. Dance the night (?) away. Literally be a "ghost in the machine".
	Toy Figure (Spacebux Purchase)	Squeak. Burp. Fart. Be the most realistic doll ever.
	Mentor Mouse (Exclusive to Mentors)	A helpful little mouse that will (hopefully) give good advice. Click on it to pick it up!
	Admin Mouse (Exclusive to Admins)	A troublemaking mouse that will most probably contribute to your death, one way or another.

Antagonist-Exclusive Ghost Critters

If you die as an antagonist and opt to respawn as a ghost critter, you'll instead spawn as either a fly or mosquito. Flies have the ability to occasionally vomit, dumping out whatever chemicals managed to get inside them and applying their turf reactions on the floor and TOUCH effects on any unfortunately bystanders. Meanwhile mosquitos have one that lets them steal a single unit of blood from a human and heal themselves; this also transfers a tiny 1.1u of whatever was in the human to the mosquito and an even tinier 0.1u of the mosquito's chems to the human.

While they are antags and are meant to hamper the station, these are more of an extra way to annoy the crew after you die rather than a second chance at an antag round. On top of this, the regular rules and mechanical restrictions of ghost critters still apply.

Mugshot	Critter	Notes
	Fly	Float about the Bar and Kitchen grodily. Get chased by the Chef after for vomiting all over their food and ruining their ratings.
	Mosquito	Buzz incessantly. Drain blood from unwitting Pool visitors. Accidentally walk into a different flying bloodsucker.

Polymorphed Critters

Getting Baleful Polymorphed by a Wizard will randomly turn you into one of these critters for 8 minutes, after which you return to your original form. Like Ghost Critters, these animals can breathe in space and have little health (albeit much more than a ghost critter would). Unlike Ghost Critters, these animals can actually pull everything a regular human can and can pick up a much wider range of objects (generally tiny- to small-size, with some able to do normal-size.) Some of them even have dedicated attack abilities with names like Gnaw or Bite. However, most of them (save mice and both roach varieties) can't phase through doors, and they're still not antagonists, unless the polymorph victim actually was an Antagonist beforehand.

Mugshot	Critter	Notes
	Space Dog	Pounce on people. Bite the Mail Courier. Hang out with George. Shoot guns and perform surgeries despite having no thumbs.
	Space Cat	Weave between peoples legs. Knock glasses off tables. Pester the Chef for more Lasagna. Take a nap.
	Space Bird	Wear hats. Be the cool critter on the block with a headset slot. Screech over the radio. Peck the Wizard's (or the person who forcefed you feather fluid) eye out.
	Space Owl	Hoot. Hang around the Owlery. Deliver letters. Find familiar faces in space.
	Space goose	Honk to your heart's content. Migrate to another station when the Clown slips you out for taking his job.
	Space Swan	Complain about the size of the pool. Report back to your superiors. Bend your neck in ways thought impossible. Scream in pain as someone drinks all the pool water. Bring glory to the Swandicate.
	Space Turkey	Spread your feathers proudly. Realize its Space Thanksgiving. Bring peace between Nanotrasen and the Syndicate by being the main course of a dinner party.
	Space Timberdoodle	Scream. Eenk adorably. Eenk entertainingly. Eenk viciously. Eenk!
	Space Seagull	Squawk. Hang around the Pool. Furiously squawk the Chef for fish.
	Space Bat / Angry Bat	Hang around the local bloodsucker, inevitably get downed by a toolbox. Screech cheesy stock scary music tracks and 60s superhero shows themes.
	Space Raccoon	Scour Disposals and the station's hallways for leftover Discount Dan's and coffee. Be the four-footed version of a Staff Assistant.
	Space Pig	Lament at the lack of mud on station. Oink. Make friends with the killer spider queen. Help the Chef serve breakfast.
	Space Walrus	Swing your weight around. Be the second laziest thing on the station. Sit on anyone who opposes you.
	Space Seal	Be the cuter, smaller version of the Walrus. Go ballistic when the Janitor takes your bucket. Ponder why the Chef wanted you to visit him in the kitchen.
	Space Crab	Pinch people. Host a crab rave. Scuttle around. Help the Chef with his newest recipe.
	Space Bee	Bee cute. Bee adorable. Bee kind. Sting whoever dares to mess with your beeloved owner and give them the itch of their life.
	Space Bumblespider	Coo adorably when hugged. Use your six hand slots to become the physical embodiment of "many hands make light work". Or, just annoy monkeys and other pests with your poisonous, itch-inducing bite.
	Baby Spider	Nibble on people. Drain the fluids of a human or monkey to become...
	Medium Spider	Scare yourself with your own appearance. Terrify the clown. Eat the clown (or just anyone) to become...
	Queen Spider	Be dissapointed in the wiki's outdated information. Realize you are worse than a baby spider. Realize this is a metaphor for adulthood.
	Maneater	Have just as much bark as bite. Chat with the other local fauna. Murder in the name of mother nature. Get set on fire by a botanist carelessly disposing of his lit joint.
	Space Wasp	Literally sting like a bee while floating like a butterfly. Give some poor soul a life-long supply of itching powder with your sting.
	Fermid	Clack your mandibles. Bite people. Realize you are a larger version of the cockroach. Get squished by an assistant with a toolbox.
	Floating Eye	Float around eerily. Win a staring content. Struggle to wear sunglasses. Reel back in pain when someone pets you on the eye. Take a trip to the eye doctor. Make a friend.
	Space Snail / Slug	Coat the whole station with (harmless) slime trails. Drive the poor Janitor to suicide despite having no arms. Lament your state as the lame, uncool brother of the snake.

Changeling

Main article: Changeling#The_Hivemind

Through certain abilities, the Changeling can detach various organs from themselves, creating autonomous minions controlled by select members of its hivemind. Eyespiders can't attack, but see behind walls and in the dark. Handspiders can gather DNA points from bodies living and dead. Legworms can robust the crap out of everybody and everything they see. Buttcrabs can make people fart a lot or make them stop farting. The first three can boil their own blood to go out in super-hot explosion of gibs and changeling blood.

Other

These critters appear through entirely different mechanisms from the ones previously discussed. Most of them use fairly old code that makes them more like objects than mobs; they can't be set on fire, grabbed, or stunned, and chems have no effect them them.

Mugshot	Critter	Source	Notes
	Living Soulsteel/Hauntium Object	Soulsmithery/Soulweaving	Float around ominously. Play yourself as a hauntium instrument. Play with wacky container code as a soulsteel locker.
	Meatcube	Trash Compactors	Squirm horrendously. Fart terrifically. Accidentally get stuck in space, without anybody to welder-pop you out of your mercy.
	Mini Singularity	Admin screwery	Suck out the tiles from every floor and the sheets from every wall with your immense gravitational pull. Somehow be unable to suck in the rest of the floor with you. Embark on an epic quest to merge with the one who begot you.
	Syndicate Drone	Admin screwery/Debris Field	Tear down everything in your path like a murderous robotic Kool-Aid Man. Blast/cut up/ion shock the crap out of anything that moves and occasionally anything that doesn't.
No Mortal Can Bear The Sight	Space Owl in a Bikini	Admin screwery	Champion the cause of Wonkmin. Hoot seductively.