The agents of this thread are pretty fucking too: Let's Play Lobotomy Corporation

[Gespenst]

So Punishing Bird... you might notice some of it's guidelines refer to panicking agents, there's a reason for that; the bird is a good friend who hates seeing your agents suffer, it will ignore other agents to seek out panicking agents and its pecks will act like an agent with white damage. it'll also ignore attacks from panicked agents, so if you have a panicked agent when it breaches (more likely then it sounds given that panic decreases its counter) the bird will seek out and cure the agent, then go home.

[Nanimani]

Huh. That's really useful. Thanks, Punishing Bird!
Wait, how's it gonna catch the employee? It moves much slower than my panicking agents tend to.

[Gespenst]

Yeah, it's unfortunately pretty useless since it's so slow, it can't keep up with wandering or breakout agents and suicides will pop long before it gets there (unless they're really close) so it can only really help with murder agents, as long as they aren't strong enough to bring it down before it finishes. it's a shame that it's so useless given how fun of an interaction it is.

[Talow]

That is a cool interaction, if only pun birb was faster.

[TeeQueue]

Synchronizing Memory Repository . . .

Day 13: Story

Music: Dungeon - Wrong Way Street


Huh? Oh… it's you again. Okay, lay it on me.

Do not trust the AI at your side.

...That's it?

You didn't let me explain.

You're right. Please, go on.



Some can even imitate human emotions with ease. However, they can do things you are not aware of yet.



Or rather, to be more precise, they can withhold information. If the controller of an AI has given the order to not share specific information… It has no obligation to tell the truth to anyone, other than that controller.



I’ve programmed an AI before. Well, participated in the programming, to be exact… That’s how I know for a fact that an AI will not necessarily tell the truth. In case you doubt what I’m saying… I will send you a program for your monitor that I developed myself.



The nose will lengthen. The color red means untruth. This is a test version, so it can only be used once.

In summary: ANGELA IS UNTRUSTWORTHY :derp: :asoiaf: :derp:

Also, B gives us a single-use program which exposes lies an AI tells us in a Pinocchioesque manner, but instead of making Angela's nose grow it'll make the monitor we're using glow red.


Music: The 6th Light


I’ve been feeling really confident lately!



I bet that confidence thing's about to change. Hi, Angela!

Ah, Lady Angela! Are you talking about my counseling program? Thank you!

Yes, shut it down immediately.



Don’t delude yourself, Hod. You don’t sincerely believe that counseling can be of any help in this place, do you?

But… But I want to continue it... As long as there’s an employee who needs me… What about Tiffany? She… she said my program helped her cope with her stress…



She… what?



I bet she said something like this whenever she came to you: “Miss Hod, you’re helping me so much! But I think I’ll need a bit of Enkephalin on top of your counseling to ease my melancholy! It’s just a little extra, of course...” You prescribed highly addictive substances as if you were handing out candy to children.





And what about Netzach? You gave him the substance as well. I temporarily gave you access to Enkephalin because I determined you could use it for your “counseling program” to reduce the stress level of the employees, and yet you’ve only been creating drug addicts.

Netzach… He told me that he wanted to introduce the program to his team…



....

Hod, your naive compassion is only driving things to become worse around here. Your program is hereby terminated.



The employees will do anything to coax whatever they desire out of you. They have nothing left to lose; they won’t even feel any guilt about it.

In summary: Hod's counseling program was apparently pushing :catdrugs: all along, and she wasn't helping anyone so much as getting them high as hell. Angela steps in to brutally shut down the program and give Hod a talking to about ever trusting the employees. Also, Netzach is a drug-addict, apparently. That's… that's probably fine.



You sure you won't get in trouble for telling me to treat the employees like partners?

Um… it should be okay! I didn't say anything untrue.

Right. Well, at least this mission is easy. I'm sure I still have a rank 3 agent around here somewhere…

Most managers have the opposite problem by the time they get to this point. I'm used to helping rank 2 or 3 agents grow, not polishing off the skills of level 5 veterans. You really have a knack for management!

Thanks. I try my best.



Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: We meet a magical girl, and someone gets a new tat.









Galstaff, you have entered the door to the north. You are now by yourself standing in a dark room-

I check for traps! _{You're supposed to check for traps, right?}

Don't look at me, I've never played this nerd stuff.

You don't see any traps. However, a dank, fell beast drops down from on high!

What kind of beast? Is it fluffy?

No, it's a hairless thing the size of a dog with folded, saggy skin, with pus dripping from open sores as a small swarm of ticks and bugs leap about its body. It growls and snarls at you.

I feed it.

What? You're supposed to roll initiative-

I. Feed. It. The thing's clearly got a preference for instinct work, so I give it food and pet it.

Uh… make a saving throw?

14?

You… feed it. Successfully? It growls and bites at you, and you take… 2 damage.

Cool. How many boxes does it make? How's my fortitude looking?

I don't think that's how this game works…

Then this game is stupid. If it can't help me survive tomorrow, what's the point?

Hey..! This game's really important to me. My family always played it together to forget about bad days at work or school.

Oh, you're a Nest baby, huh. Must be nice to have time for games. Down in the Backstreets, we had to do things like...

Tenebrais, let's just calm down. This is a really nice game, and I'm sure-

N-nah, it's okay, Credentia. I know I was born lucky. It's probably how I got a job here so easily.

Twee…

Anyways… I have a lot of memories wrapped up in this game, and I just thought it might be nice to share it with my coworkers, so… Y'know. I just wanted to help everyone relax a bit!

I get all the relaxation I need from hittin' things. :toughguy:

Oh, come on Tenebrais. It can't hurt to blow off some steam, right?

...Alright, geeze. We'll keep playing. So what's an 'initiative,' anyways? _{Besides that thing Malkuth keeps insisting we always show...}

[TeeQueue]

So Punishing Bird... you might notice some of it's guidelines refer to panicking agents, there's a reason for that; the bird is a good friend who hates seeing your agents suffer, it will ignore other agents to seek out panicking agents and its pecks will act like an agent with white damage. it'll also ignore attacks from panicked agents, so if you have a panicked agent when it breaches (more likely then it sounds given that panic decreases its counter) the bird will seek out and cure the agent, then go home.

Yeah, it's unfortunately pretty useless since it's so slow, it can't keep up with wandering or breakout agents and suicides will pop long before it gets there (unless they're really close) so it can only really help with murder agents, as long as they aren't strong enough to bring it down before it finishes. it's a shame that it's so useless given how fun of an interaction it is.

It tries really hard, you guys. :<

[Gespenst]

Huh... so AI's being able to lie almost-but-not-actually impossible in a fey "not technically a lie by some definitions" kind of way.
And it's pretty clear that Netzach has been lying to Hod to get Enkehpalin.
Raises some interesting questions about what exactly the sephirah really are.

[TeeQueue]

Synchronizing Memory Repository . . .

Day 13: Gameplay

Music: neutral 2


Now that we've completed a mission, let's take a quick look at what Hod can offer our facility.

Improve Hiring Procedures: Increases the base stats of hirees by 5. It's not terrible, but it's not our immediate priority since we're sitting on a lot of extra agents right now anyways.

Improve Work Education: This is another buff to our Clerks. It upgrades their HP and SP to 15-21 each (an increase of 5), and improves their guns to have a 60% chance of dealing 2 damage with each shot. Clerks are still terrible so this is a low priority upgrade.

Supply Education Manuals: Now THIS is more like it. If you remember the EXP formula talk from earlier, this research gives us a +0.5 bonus to our training modifier-which immediately makes all of our works 50% more effective than they'd otherwise be. This is the single biggest increase the training modifier gets in the entire game.



It's only a shame that you have to wait 13 days to get it.



Something seems… off. Did we get a new agent?



She's been here for some time. Recently, she's been moved to a more active role in the company.

Zeta21… Yesod, are you sticking me with a clerk?

Think of it as a test run.

Don't be ridiculous, Clerks don't-

With all due respect, sir, needless deaths are expensive and we only have so many LOB.

_{When did you…} Ugh. Fine. Just don't come crying to me if they bite it.

I won't.

Let's just… get this over with.





Hey, I managed to snag a snapshot on the first frame after starting! You can tell because all of the regenerator bars still have that red X next to them and not all of the agents/clerks have loaded in yet.

It's time. Remember to follow the protocols.



So you're the new kid, huh? Yesod said a clerk'd been promoted, but I didn't think it was true…

Nice to meet you. I'm Zaida Toniwan.

Nice to meet you too, Zeta21.

That's not quite-

A new smiling face has entered the fray. What joy, what fun! HAHAHAHAHA!

...yeah, nevermind. When's breaktime?

As long as you're not being expressly told to do something? Always.

Man, you guys really do have it better.



Come on, Tenebrais, cheer up. That could have happened to anyone.

Those rolls were bullshit and I refuse to acknowledge it any further.

What happened?

Her character got killed by ogres.

It was bullshit! My sword had a +3 against ogres!

Orders from the top, everyone. Tenebrais and Credentia are to keep up their training regimens with 1.76 and the Murderer. Blond, you're heading downstairs in a bit to help with Laetitia. I'll stay up here and coordinate our response.

Huh. Where's Malkuth?

Interviewing the leftover clerks from Hod's counseling program. Apparently there was a suicide in Safety and the whole thing got shut down. Last I heard one of them was dealing Enkephalin on the side too… it's huge mess.

Oof. Well, try not to screw it up boss.



...woah. :stwoon:



The new abnormality certainly has a different aura…

It's a super cutie! I'm gonna go say hi.

Shouldn't you wait for orders?

Why wait? That just means someone may say no.



Our new friend here is the first WAW our facility's seen. Note how tiny the box on the left there is-WAW and higher abnormalities are worth much more energy per work than your average HE or below.



For comparison, here's what Laetitia's gauge looks like.

Huh… they're right. You really are a good girl.

_Friends?

Let's not get hasty.



There's a cost to the power, however. Because they're so powerful, whenever a WAW abnormality is worked it gets something called a Qliphoth Overload. This applies a flat penalty to work success equal to the number on the side. For WAW abnormalities, this number increases by 4 per work. Overloads go away at every meltdown level, so it's very dangerous to work a single WAW or higher class abnormality too often in a single level.



So how was it?

Hehehe~ The cutie gave me something special! She really cares about her friends~

The symbol above Mizu's head prevents her from doing any work for the remainder of the day-she can't even touch tool abnormalities once she gets it. However, it offers her 50% protection against every damage type but Pale. It doubles the Pale damage she'd take, but since Pale damage is incredibly rare it's worth having around.



Hod, I know it's been a bad day for you, but we don't need to do anything about that bird.

I'm just letting you know!

Just have an agent stand in its hallway, it'll go home.



This actually works, but using Mizu here isn't the best plan since the bird goes home after dealing a specific number of HP. If we had a way to heal while standing in the hallways we could just sit an agent here forever and never worry about the bird again, but we can't do that since they'd eventually die of pecking. It's nothing a trip to the main room can't fix, though, so no big deal.

In the meanwhile, we've finished getting enough boxes to get some information about our new abnormality...



Her name is Magical Girl, but since we've already confirmed there are at least two of those we know she'll be getting a new one before too long. Her 22 maximum energy boxes is average for WAWs, with them having a range of 20-24. For comparison, HEs go from 15-18, TETHs go from 12-14, and ZAYINs are almost universally 10.

It's around now that I also realize I have a problem: none of the agents I've stationed in Training can work with the Scarecrow. Luckily...

Yesod, umm… Do you have any agents with low Prudence? We'd like to borrow them for the day.

Don't worry, I have just the agent in mind.



...This is just my life now, huh.

I see what you're doing here, Yesod.

You should really be looking at the clock instead.

What? Why should I-



I'll leave you to take care of it.



Heh. These guys tickle. How hard can this be?



Ghh-stop jumping around and let me hit you!!



Mr.Black here also is attempting to solo a group of Amber Dawns, but spears attack much faster than clubs so he's able to hit them. He manages to solo this entire group but one before going home to heal.



So… thanks for coming to help, Talow.

No problem.

But this isn't working. They're too fast to get a hit in on.

...yeah, these clubs kind of suck. Luckily, we're just stalling for time.

Oh? For what?



I smell a cutie~!

For her to finish with the other group. Let's fall back.

Roger.



Manager, one of those worms got away from Mr.Black. It seems to be attacking one of the clerks in Malkuth's department. With her being indisposed…

Yeah yeah… Tenebrais, you're still working on Forsaken Murderer, right?

Sure am. What of it?

Could you just swing your hammer on the way out the door?

I guess, but why?



Oh. That's why.



You serious? I saved one clerk.

And that clerk could go on to do great things.



Huh… grape jam. I'll go see if the break room has any of those bagels left.

Yes. Truly a visionary among men.

…….



A little while later, we get something interesting: a Meltdown on the Magical Girl. Meltdowns on WAW and ALEPH abnormalities are either really good or really bad, depending entirely on if you can safely work the abnormality in question. If you can't, you have a problem dumped into your lap that may end with someone going crazy or dying as a monster breaks out and lays waste to the facility. If you can, however, you get a free work with a high-energy Abnormality, because Meltdown works do not raise the overload penalty. If I weren't in such a hurry that I triggered this while someone was working on her, we'd be able to get two penalty-free works with her in a row. As it is we get two works at -4%, which isn't bad at all.



Since the Portrait was melting down right next to it, I had Medea touch it and then get to work on the Magical Girl again. As for who the damage is passing to…



That's definitely the feeling of being traumatized for no reason! HAHAHAHA!

...I'm sorry?

Not at all! This despair is delectable!



The work is enough to give us more information on our latest abnormality, including her real name: Say hello to Knight of Despair, everyone!

Music: First Trumpet


And say goodbye, because we have another clown car scorpion to deal with! If Punishing Bird hadn't escaped on top of it, we wouldn't have had a music change-but hey, First Trumpet is a great song. If you haven't listened to it yet, you should totally click on it.



Boss, why do you get the long-range gun if I'm easier to kill than you?

I'm the Team Captain, so I'm less replaceable. Just run away if things get too dicey.



Crimson Noons remain not an actual threat, and this one dies about 3 seconds after Mizu shows up to help, spreading the Dawns around everywhere.



Hey Zeta21, can you help with this clown?

...yeah, I'm sweeping.

Zeetaa!!

I'm en route now.



Did you have to wait for me to be leaving containment to blow it up?

There were two of them. I got hit by the first one blowing up myself.

That'd explain the giblets coming out of your arm, I guess.

Music: neutral 2


Not long after we finally unlock the last bit of Knight of Despair's information, and I finally remember that attachment 5 was her highest work tier. For the rest of the day, Medea hangs out with her. We also finally unlock access to her E.G.O Gear.



This is the only suit below ALEPH level that has a Pale modifier of better than 1.5x. It is also enough to survive working with any Pale damage abnormality in the game. Since they give really good stuff, we'll be trying to get our hands on them ASAP.





While having Medea work with Knight of Despair, I noticed that the portrait was changing without people dying. I went and looked into this, and it turns out that the trigger is sending 100 damage, rather than having people die. The more you know, huh?



AH, MY TRAUMAS! THEY'RE RESPLENDENT!!

D.A.D., he won't stop doing it. Can we put him somewhere?

Just dingle the little bell on your hat 'til he stops. It's what I do.

Mr.Black, is now taking ~6-8 damage per failed box, so every time Medea says hi to the Knight he's losing a large chunk of his sanity.



Woah, nice tattoo, Medea!

I'm not sure it's a tattoo. Knight of Despair was lamenting the loss of her old friends while we were talking. I told her about what happened to Ishmael, and how bad that felt… and the next thing I know she was poking me!

Sounds a lot more intense than the hat Laetitia offered me. Or the radio that just sort of… appeared.

She said it was a permanent reminder of the sorrow we feel for those we've lost. She's so forlorn… I wish there was something we could do for her.

We could always not die?

I meant something bigger… but that works, I guess.

Nothing else of note happened through the entire day, so things end like they usually have been ending lately: On meltdown level IX with our new abnormality maxed out.

Okay everyone, the manager just called it. Let's pack it all in for the day and grab a drink!



Um, Miss Tenebrais?

What.

I just wanted to thank you for everything. If you hadn't shown up when you did… that worm thing would have gutted me through.

...Oh. You were there. Whatever.

...did you see that? Even the way she tries to play it off like it's no big deal is amazing!

She really is a model agent. Saving lives like it's an afterthought.

We should start a fan club!



Good job today, everyone!

Notable powerups from today's works include:

• Medea's Temperance maxes out
• Mizu gains 7 points of Temperance from a single work.
• Mr.Blond jumps from Temperance level 2 to 5 because Laetitia is a good girl who has done nothing wrong in her life. This is how we cleared Hod's mission, he was level 3 and this put him over the edge.
• D.A.D. gains 40 points of Prudence in a handful of works with Rudolta
• Zeta21 has maxed her Prudence, and gained 14 points of Temperance from a single work with Laetitia.

Stat growths start getting hilarious after you get Hod's research. I love it.

Music: never frozen bottom flows


T-09-94: Many of those who underwent an operation inside the machine have found themselves rested and healthy again.
T-09-78: The final chapter ends with the phrase: "Born again."
T-09-79: And the prayer shall inevitably end with the eternal despair of its worshipper.

It's tool time yet again, and we've got three new ones! First there's -94, a ZAYIN tool which goes completely unused 90% of the time and completely negates otherwise difficult challenges the other 10%. It can make people explode, but it's rare. The next one, -78, is an equippable HE tool. This means agents grab it and hold on to it throughout the day, and they can return it whenever they like. This particular tool gives a minor boost to a stat, will probably kill someone the first time you see it, and after that there's only a medium chance of it making people explode. Finally, there's -79. On paper, it's a healing tool which lets you heal your entire facility at once. In practice, it's a rather high-risk WAW tool which holds a strict time limit and will kill either your agent or the entire facility if it's handled improperly.



We go with -94, because that 10% is absolutely worth showing off.

Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: X asks Angela an important question, and I do something completely unexpected.

New Guidelines

Knight of Despair

New Gear


Requirements: Level 4
*Not affected by Attack Speed


Requirements: Justice 4

New Story

Knight of Despair

[TeeQueue]

Mechanics Talk 11: E.G.O

It's time to talk about the randomly dropping presents that range from a sweet hat to a thorny crown to a jerkyface stapled over your current face: E.G.O Gifts. Gifts are randomly handed out after a work with a specific abnormality is completed, and add a small number to the agent's stats in addition to changing up their looks. There are limits to this, however:

First, Gifts are kind of rare. The highest odds in the game are an 8% chance of appearing with each work, with most being at 5% for ZAYIN/TETH levels, 4% for HEs, 3% for WAWs, and 1% for ALEPHs. Normally, the power level of the Gift corresponds to the level of the abnormality, but the 1% drops aren't so strong as to overshadow the others, and several HE- and even TETH-tier Gifts are on par with or outright better than the rarer options.

Second, each Gift takes up a specific slot. There are 14 total slots: Hat, Helmet, Eye, Face, Mouth 1, Mouth 2, Cheek, Brooch, Neckwear, Left Back, Right Back, Hand 1, Hand 2 and Special. Each can only hold one Gift, and they are not evenly distributed at all. Three of these slots have only a single Gift available, and several others have only 2-3. On the other end of the scale, one category (Hat) has a total of 13 different possible Gifts.

There are two main trains of thought about how to optimize E.G.O Gifts: using them to stack Temperance to make working faster and easier, or using them to stack Justice to move/use weapons more quickly. Between the two I lean towards preferring Justice, since I figure that even with half the ALEPH-tier weapons not working with attack speed properly, you still can't beat a 200 move speed agent running around at the speed of light. Still, Gifts are mostly a matter of personal preference, and outside of a couple of clear winners we can't go wrong with getting as many as we can.



Okay… we mostly can't go wrong.

[TeeQueue]

Synchronizing Memory Repository . . .

Day 14: Story

Music: story 4




This line. Half of you are chuckling right now, and the other half are confused. Let me explain this joke: I've mentioned the terrible translation before, and out of the entire thing, a single line stood out as being so bad it was amazing.



Filling a water bottle with bear became a community joke, and when the game got retranslated this line was changed as a nod to the original mistranslation.

Sometimes I wonder what it would feel like to be intoxicated. One time, I was infected with a virus that prevailed throughout the net at the time. It caused me to perceive everything ten times slower… They say intoxication is similar to that.



Excuse me… Manager? Your facial expression is hard to read today.



>Are you going to sabotage the company?


Every conversation between us is recorded and monitored.



Let me give you an answer. I only exist as part of the system. Such a plot does not exist, nor will it ever be written. Even if it were, it would not succeed.



The screen flashes red repeatedly here, which means that she's lying.

---

>Will you ever harm me?


When I said I was different from the others, I detected disbelief in your facial expressions. Perhaps I am beginning to like you. Sharing emotions with someone is a precious experience.



I have never had any plans, nor do I have any will to harm you.



Let's be real: we all saw this one coming.

---
Routes Merge Here
In summary: Angela wonders what it's like to be drunk, mentions she was infected with malware that made her perceive time 10x slower at one point, and... oh yeah, she's planning to sabotage the company and kill us, I guess. Let's all pretend this is a surprise.

Music: Forgotten Entrance of Memories


I assure you, it’s just for counseling purposes.

Netzach, actually…



This is ridiculous! That guy’s already got his hands full, and now he has to take her stupid counseling?

Poor Eugene. What can an employee do against a Sephirah’s orders, anyway?

I doubt she really cares about us. She’s just doing this to make herself feel superior!

More work for us, I guess.



...



*The screen fades to black, and then fades back in.*



Uh… well this is just for counseling, yeah.



While most of the time '...'s seem to be the AI judging us, I feel like Hod's are her worrying about us judging her.



Why won’t they appreciate my kindness? I thought I was the nicest Sephirah who cared the most for the employees. The other Sephirot are so occupied with their own work that they don’t even care about how their subordinates end up. The corporation treats them as if they’re expendable resources.



I’m not a “Cold-blooded Machine” like Yesod. I’m not haphazard like Malkuth. And I’m definitely not a “oh-it-can’t-be-helped” person like Netzach. Just, why…



In summary: On today's Very Special Episode of Lobotomy Corporation, Hod tries doing Enkephalin after overhearing her employees complaining about her counseling programming. She then complains to X about how nobody appreciates her, and (quite accurately, admittedly) badmouths her fellow Sephirot.



...and here it is: the first Suppression mission. Hod requires us to defeat four different Abnormalities, and right now we have exactly 4 Abnormalities which can breach: Rudolta, Scarecrow, Forsaken Murderer, and Punishing Bird. For us to do this tomorrow, we'd have to defeat that monstrosity.

We're not going to do that tomorrow, and because we're not doing it tomorrow we have no reason to continue opening Training-we'd have to clear the mission to get any more cutscenes anyways. So:




I figured after hearing about the suicide, I should see how things are run myself.

Eh.

...Eh?

Don't really care.

Is that the sort of attitude a Sephirah should have?

I'm gonna' mosey back over to my department. Later.

...hey! Don't just ignore me!

Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: Mr.Black ascends to godhood by smiling really hard.








Manager. We need to talk.

Bishop? Sure… what brings you here?

Did you click on the links in any emails? Download something from a site that you were linked? Anything like that?

No, nothing of the sort. Why?

I installed some custom programs onto the server to monitor network activity, and-

You did what? Why?!

Not the point. I caught an unauthorized program running in the system. It looks like a masterpiece-it's designed to circumvent the company's usual checks. If I hadn't had something running, it wouldn't have been found.

Well... that's... very good work! Thanks for letting me know.

You're missing the point, sir. I traced it back to your terminal. With all due respect... since you didn't open anything suspicious, and you do most of your work by teleconference, it must be you who installed it.

Gh..!

Then there's the personnel files. I looked through them, and it turns out that we have no records of an 'X' ever applying for a position here at all. You just showed up one day.

...

Between that, the program, and the way this facility's been run lately… Who are you, really?

I… need time to think.

Don't mess around with me, Manager.

No. Seriously. Tomorrow. Work's starting in ten minutes, and I don't have time to get it all ordered before then. We'll talk after work.

..Fine. Don't think about trying to get rid of me during the day. I was a Rank 7 Fixer before I landed this job.

...those are definitely words that I know and recognize.

...Seriously? Well-even with the rust, there's nothing in this facility that'll be able to take me out. That's all you need to know.

I wouldn't dream of it anyways. Not a lot of people willing to work under Malkuth for as long as you have.

...she's not that bad, once you get used to her.

Pft. You've got a crush~

What are you implying?!

Bishop and Mal-kuth, sitting in a-

I-I'll contact you again tomorrow! You'd better be ready then!



...Ah, hell.

[JamieTheD]

Ah, X is between a rock and a hard place. "Lucky" for them, the rock is guaranteed to kill them, whereas the hard place might get killed by the rock before then...

[TeeQueue]

Synchronizing Memory Repository . . .

Day 14: Gameplay

Music: neutral 1


This is honestly a choice between two relatively useless abilities. We won't need to pick up newbies until close to day 20, and Clerks don't matter. It's slightly suboptimal, I guess, but I went with the stat powerup.



Just some personnel shuffling, Safety honestly doesn't need more than one person yet so this'll probably get changed before too long.



Most importantly, Talow is now our first agent decked out in full WAW gear. He's still a bit fragile compared to Mizu or Bishop, but he's fast and the extra armor will keep him from getting killed.





It doesn't matter… just do whatever.



Alright, brain trusts, today our job is to… Keep everyone alive? What?

Huh… sounds hard, but I'm sure we can do it!

So long as they keep laughing, they'll never die! HAHAHAHA!

Right. Well. On to our new abnormality…



It looks like some kind of automatic… something machine!

Thanks, Twee. So, who's testing it?

As the ranking agent, it clearly falls to me. Wait here with a smile for me to return!

Good luck!

_{Wait… He outranks us..?}



The new tool is time-based, meaning it's either equipment or channel-type. Since it doesn't look like it moves, probably channel. Mr.Black is thrown in unceremoniously.



...no? And with such immediacy? Have I neglected to shower again? I don't believe so!



And now it's yes! How curious…

The device swaps back and forth between Yes and No every couple seconds, over time getting faster until it alternates between them every frame. Since it takes 3:20 to fully research everything, Mr.Black will be here for a while.



God, same? I usually just have some coffee.

They do have the good stuff, here. Say… where's Bishop?

He said he needed to take care of something and went to the manager's office. He should be back soon.

Orders from the top, everyone! Credentia, they need you in Training to deal with the Scarecrow. Tenebrais?

Radio duty?

Radio duty.

Sweet. :toughguy:



Hm-hm-hm, give a little smile~



Wow, Zeta21, that's super interesting! I still can't believe you MADE it!

It's a surprise, yeah.

Can you put in a good word for me with the bosses? They have you working with real abnormalities, right? You have to have some pull!

It's just me for Laetitia and Rudolta today. Something about needing to catch up in a hurry... And not working with the freaky sleigh if I get a gift?

Is it true that you guys can split boulders with a single strike and get thrown through walls without taking damage?!

Dunno. Don't wanna find out.

Do you get to talk to Tenebrais? Are you friends? Could you introduce me?

Nnno? We're in different departments.

Aw. She's cool.

...yeah, I'm going on break.



Outside of waggling menacingly, this machine doesn't seem to do much… Oh well! I'll simply grin and bear it!



Let's all do our best today!

Oh hey, Zeta. Why are you here?

I'm on break. Somewhere far away from the Information team.

Did you see Mizu, by chance?

Passed her in the hall. Something about a… 'super-mega-cutie?'

Ah.



She's going to see the Knight of Despair. That explains why we're at the first progress meter.

I... see. And the Manager's just okay with her doing whatever she likes?

It's easier if you just think of her as an abnormality, or maybe a force of nature. She just… does what she does.



My goodness… if I weren't so chipper I'd be roundly annoyed by how long this was taking!



...nobody's home. Of course.

The others are out working, per my orders. The clerks… well, they just wander around.

So this was your plan, eh? Bring it on.

I don't have a plan.

What?

I know you're expecting something dramatic, but… That's basically it. I don't have any plans. Ever, really.

Then how is it that our death rate has been so much lower than under every other manager?

I mostly just let you guys do your own thing. Mizu seems to instantly get how to work with Abnormalities, and Talow somehow managed to catch things she missed. The two of them together are enough to handle the new ones. Sometimes we get bad situations like the Ordeals, but half of you seem to be natural fighters, so you mostly take care of them for me, too.

So you're telling me that you don't do anything? That this place could have been this safe all along?

The only things I really handle are handing out training regimens and picking which new abnormality we get the next day. I can sort of… sense which ones to pick, but that's all.

So you're a figurehead. Why are you telling me this, though?

Let's call it a gesture of goodwill. I can't expect you to work your best if you're worried I'm planning to off you, right?

...You're a weird manager, sir.

I'll take that as a compliment. Now get back to work, fluffhead.



Can I come out now..?

Hold on a second, let me just pull up the work notes…



You Must Be Happy is actually really simple: Yes = stats go up, No = stats go down, and you blow up at the end of the day if your stats go up too much. With it being one frame between each word now, what we get is effectively random. The machine stops either when we click on it to stop using it, or when we pause- this prevents us from gaming the system.



So the question is, am I happy..?



What a silly question! I'm always grinning ear-to-ear!

Just look at the stats differences between these two shots. Mr.Black gained around 78 points between them all, meaning he's below the 200 cutoff.. YMBH cannot boost an agent over a 100 base, and that's what's going to keep Mr.Black alive at the end of the day.



Welcome back! How do you feel?

…Powerful. :ssj:

Good, because you're just in time.



Manager-

Already on it. Everyone, take care of business.





Bishop and Mizu are sent to deal with their departments' infestations. There are no survivors.



Talow is using a melee weapon, so he still has trouble. We pull him out right after this.



Safety handles their business quickly enough, and I realize I've forgotten to do anything about Information team's Dawns.



That's three more funerals today already, Manager.

It's alright, I sent Mizu in to clear them out, see?

…...



Umm… manager! One escaped, and it's in my department now!

Eat lead, Dawn!



:hehe: Want some help?

Please.



I'm sending Mizu over now, she may get there before the clerks are-



…..Angela.

Yes, X?

Did those two clerks just kill an Ordeal, and finish off our energy refinement because of it?

That is what I just said, Manager.

Buy those clerks a bear-brand beer. They've earned it. Also a day off.

...Very well, X.

Man, a clerk was useful today? Didn't see that coming at all...



...ah. Thank you Hod. I was almost feeling like something had changed.

Anytime, Manager!



That plan? Their vacation plans are nice, but there's not a lot of parts of the city worth seeing.

There's a sandwich shop I wanted to check out, actually. I've heard it's really good.

It's not in district 23, is it?

Oh, goodness no. I couldn't stomach that.

All departments, prepare for a Green Noon. I repeat: We have a Green Noon incoming, please send all low-fortitude agents to their designated safe areas.



Hey, boss, where's our safe area at?

zzzz…

Ugh… He's asleep at a time like this?!

That's incredible in its own way!

Focus, kid. We're in trouble.

Worry not! There's not a robot anywhere near-



Your comedic timing is perfect! Come fellows, to arms!

Four departments is around where things start getting a little more complicated when it comes to 1-per-department ordeals like Green Noon. In addition to the fight over here, there are three other robots roaming around.



One engages in Training, and now you see the major problem: These are on opposite sides of the screen. My options are either pausing and moving manually from one side to the other, or pulling back and watching both at once, which loses out on visual information. I can't even look at both sides' HP efficiently, since being pulled back makes the bars small, and you can only view the status of one team at a time in the work menu.

In these situations, there are two main options: Pause a lot, or focus on whichever fight is the most dangerous. Training will be fine, so I keep an eye on Safety.



They win, but Mr.Blond gets pretty torn up.



Just go with the flow… HYAH!

Woah! It's the super-cutie's signature super stabbing strike shot!

Not bad, Talow!

That huge stream of White 2's is courtesy of the special attack of Talow's E.G.O Weapon. Some weapons have secondary attack types, which can deal bonus damage or have other effects. This one is simple: it's a bunch of extra stabs that deal low damage.



I had Talow go deal with the last Noon by himself so I could get a good shot of it. Don't worry, he runs away right after this. The Safety team comes back in, and they're easily able to mop up a half health Green Noon.



Green Noons are the terror of earlygame, but this facility is the terror of Green Noons. :c00lbert:



By studying the construction of this robot, I might be able to find a better way to enact that base theory in fighting them.

I love it! A million points for enthusiasm!

zzz-hnk?! Hey. Keep it down out there…

_{Ah! Yes, sir!}

Manager, there is still plenty of time left in the day. Perhaps you would like to pursue the newest mission?

...Not yet. Not without a plan. That thing… It's not natural.

Manager?



Just… look at it, Angela. Bobbing. Waiting. Plotting. Last time, I was careless-and it killed Ishmael. The one blemish on my record.

Aside from all the clerks.

Clerks don't count.

Perhaps if we had the entire facility act en masse?



Look at it, Angela. It can stretch that far as just a warmup. Who knows how wide those jaws really go? They might even be able to reach… here.

...This level of worry is incongruous with your previous tendencies, Manager.

Dang. Can't fool you, huh? Still, we do need a plan, and today I got blindsided. Couldn't think of one. I'm going to take a night to think it over and see about getting this done tomorrow. Who knows, maybe we'll get an abnormality that can breach without being such a problem.

Manager, does that mean..?

Yep. We're turning in early.



Okay, pack it in everyone! We're getting a day off early.

You notice anything off about the clerks today, Bishop?

No… I've had my mind elsewhere. Something going on?

They keep staring and whispering… I think they're planning something.

...Huh. Weird. I'll keep an eye out.

Yeah.



zzz… huh?! Over already? 'Kay.

The main thing I want to bring attention to today is actually Medea's stats:



Her Prudence has fallen a level, from 5 to 4. What this means is that her actual Prudence stat is below the threshold from 4 to 5 (85), but her E.G.O. Gifts/title are enough to push her over the edge. Agents can't actually lose stats except from something like Mirror, so there's no need to worry whenever we see this.

Music: never frozen bottom flows


O-01-12: She was so talkative before, yet in the end, loneliness was the only listener
D-02-107: Dude… your "little angel" is gnawing on our colleague's finger.
F-05-52: Somewhere in the distance, you can hear seagulls.

Oh boy! That abnormality in the center is special! Long ago when the game was being created, Project Moon put out a request for funding using Tumblbug. Several backers put in for a reward that would let them create an abnormality for the game, and they were put into the game using the D- prefix and these special circular isolation rooms on the abnormality selection screen. These can be turned off in the options menu, but there's not any real reason to do so since they're pretty interesting and one of them is a firm pick for the top five best tools in the game.

Anyways, this selection… is two TETHs and a ZAYIN. I think we've seen -52 before, but if not: ZAYIN with a chance to just randomly kill agents (in a hilarious way, admittedly). It gives a lot of suits, but we're sort of past the point where ZAYIN gear would be useful. -12 is more interesting: She's a TETH which serves as a good Prudence and okay Attachment trainer, and the first source we've seen of a White damage gun. She's a fine pick for facilities since she's so low-risk, but we have a glut of Prudence and Attachment thanks to a good girl who has done nothing wrong in her life and Scarecrow/Rudolta, so she's a skip for our facility as it is now.



That leaves -107, which I am going to take without providing any additional context.

Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: We meet Netzach, and learn of a pressing hygiene issue.

New Story

You Must Be Happy

[TeeQueue]

Mechanics Talk 12: Ordeals

This post is a catchall for all the Ordeals we've met in the game, meant to be a convenient spot to find all the Ordeal cards and well as their opening and closing lines for each one. They'll be arranged by color in alphabetical order, going from Dawn > Midnight. Spoiler warning for if you're reading this later, but none of this information is all that hush-hush.

Amber
Worms. :can: Burrow to quickly travel between parts of the facility.


Arrival: A perfect meal, an excellent substitute.
Defeat: We ate incessantly to live. The inevitable diminution, the waste...


Arrival: To accustom oneself to the taste was an inevitable process.
Defeat: We could live. We could continue eating.


Arrival: They fought amongst themselves to eat the others.
Defeat: And the stronger side survived. That, simply, is the story.


Crimson
Clowns. They do things when they die.


Arrival: Let us light a flame yet more radiant in our lives; for life is a candlelight, destined to snuff out one day.
Defeat: To live is to yearn and fight for our desires.


Arrival: We marched from time to time, and we would share our pleasure.
Defeat: The collision of one life with another, skin harmonizing, painting a yet more beautiful appearance.


Arrival: Throwing away our old bodies, we all become one, infinitely continuing the red march.
Defeat: One day we will know, and tomorrow we will march hand in hand.


Green
Robots. :awesomelon: Lacks a consistent gimmick.


Arrival: One day, a question crossed through my mind. Where do we come from? We were given life and left in this world against our own volition.
Defeat: To live was a process full of pain.


Arrival: In the end, they were bound to life. We existed only to express despair and ire.
Defeat: We will understand life and the soul with our own hands.


Arrival: We constructed a looming tower to return whence we came.
Defeat: There wasn't an answer. We didn't find a single thing we wanted. We only witnessed the death of life itself.


Arrival: The tower is touched by the sky, and it will leave nothing on the earth.
Defeat: Who pays for the suffering and neglect of the lives given to us?


Violet
I swear these exist, really. We'll see one someday. FINALLY! Vaguely Cthulhu-y things. All of them have strange writing somewhere on them.


Arrival: To gain an understanding of what is incomprehensible, they dream, staring.
Defeat: They complied with nothing in their bid to understand. They simply did so.


Arrival: We could only hear the weakest and faintest of their acts. We sought for love and compassion from them.
Defeat: We cannot understand them, nor will they understand us.



Arrival: We incessantly tried to accept it. We wanted to understand them in our heads by any means, regardless of the consequences.
Defeat: For the sake of not crumbling in on oneself. The idea that they may impossibly exist, or that they are unreachable and forever enigmatic no matter the path. Unacceptable…


Indigo
The secret fifth color. It's just Sweepers-there are no other ordeals assocciated with this color aside Noon.


Arrival: When night falls in the Backstreets, they will come.
Defeat: When the sun rises anew, not a scrap will remain.

[Gespenst]

Oh, hey it's You Must Be Happy, the Lobotomy Corporation lobotomy machine! also a fun example of the game being nasty with unlock conditions, you generally want to only use it for short times to avoid the murder coin flip, so of course it has a timing requirement for it's information.
Aslo -107, probably the most unsettling abnormality I've come across. I'll explain once we actually see it.

[TeeQueue]

Synchronizing Memory Repository . . .

Day 15: Story
Music: Wake up


They say a rodent found its way into the appliance room, one of our facility’s restricted areas. This could become a serious issue.



This is one of the reasons why we emphasize security so much.

You would do best to remember that.

I will personally deal with the rodent this time.



In summary: Either we have a problem with pests, or Angela's lowkey threatening to murder B. No points for guessing which one.

Music: never frozen bottom flows




Uh, you already know my name, right? ……



>I do.


---

>No.


---

Routes Merge Here


You look a little dumbfounded. You know this isn’t the kind of place where we preach how we’re so honored to have you as our manager and whatever. Well, not like you were expecting that anyways.



I really want to quit if I could. But I can’t, can I? I’m here against my will.



For me, I don’t even remember ending up at this place, yet I have to play this role I didn’t want to take. I never wanted to be responsible for keeping others alive.



I feel helpless. Employees die everyday. There’ll be no one to remember them. No one to honor their sacrifice...

In summary: Netzach's department is supposed to keep people from dying. It doesn't work, and he's given up on the job-in large part because he never wanted it in the first place. Because he doesn't care anymore he has no problem with being as absolutely no-effort as possible, but despite everything he can't be fired and he can't quit. We're stuck with him for some reason, and he'll probably try to kill us because he's an AI and this is a video game.



...Netzach... does this count clerks?

Clerks don't count, man...

_{We might just get along after all...} In that case, let me show you what I'm capable of. Hod's got a mission, too, and I need to settle the score with that damn bird.

If you say so. It's not your funeral, after all...



I stayed up all night preparing a plan. Just watch.

Next time on Lobotomy Corporation: A fwuffy-wuffy widdle cutie-face, uwu. Also, violence!






So you don't remember who you are at all?!

<sub>Don't shout it! I don't want Angela or the Sephirot to hear!

Right-sorry. You don't remember anything?

First thing I can remember is being in the chair, with Angela welcoming me to the job. Next thing I know, I'm managing-and I'm... good? At it?

Judging from our past records, you're highly skilled. And that's just from your gut?

It's what said to trust Mizu to do her thing, and Talow to do his, and you to do yours. ...Wait-When'd you look at the records?

ugh... Well, if we're putting everything out there, remember your third day on the job?

The cameras. Yeah.

I looked then. The whole thing made a good distraction, and nobody was really paying attention to One Sin anyways.

Wait, that was you-?

I just admitted to rummaging, that's all.

...setting that aside, if you have any idea who I am I'd like to know.

Gh... Great. I guess that means this is all a dead end after all.

You don't know either, huh?

As far as I could see, you just appeared 15 days ago, and immediately took over as manager. I thought you might know something.

Something about what?

Dad disappeared while looking into this company. He was well known for his skills at investigation work. For him to vanish... I need to answer one question: What happened to him?</sub>

Well... if it helps, I have no damn clue.

It really doesn't, sir.

In that case, how about I offer you a beer?

Bear-brand?

Is there any other kind?

Sure. Just tell me if you hear anything, okay?

Pft. If I ever figure out what's going on around here, assume I've been bodysnatched by some abnormality.

Will do, boss.

[Nanimani]

By the way, are you going to post any of the fan creations in the other thread to that Reserved post? I think they're worthy of preserving.

[TeeQueue]

Synchronizing Memory Repository . . .

Day 15: Gameplay

Music: neutral 1


No major changes here, but I've started using spare LOB on bringing some 2 stats up to 3 for more mirror abuse.

Okay, team. Netzach's asked me to get through a day without any _important deaths, and Hod still wants me to suppress four different abnormalities in a single day.

<sub>Where is Netzach, anyways?

He's probably slacking off in his office.</sub>

Manager, it sounds like you're thinking of doing something incredibly stupid.

I'm thinking, dear Yesod, of revenge.

...Revenge on what?

Angela? The slides.

Yes, Manager.



This is Punishing Bird. As you can see, he is a stretchy boy. That stretch killed Ishmael. So, we're going to kill it back.

Um… Manager, those jaws can kill any one of our agents. Completing both missions that way may be-

Don't worry. I have a plan. All Sephirot, prepare your team to move on my orders!

Sir!

DAY 15 CHALLENGE: PUNISHED BIRD

Rules: Complete Hod's "I Just Want To Be a Good Person" mission and Netzach's "Lethargic Room" mission at the same time. Punishing Bird must be suppressed.





Let's all do our best today!





Ohmigosh, lookit the cute widdle pupper! He's such a good boy!!

Yeah, let's go with that.

Aww, come on, you gotta wook at those widdle eyes, and his widdle paws..! Ohmigosh, did Mizu already get first pick?

Yeah, she's en route right now.



Aww… you're just an extra special widdle cutie, aren't you?

Our new abnormality is incarnate and not liking him should be punishable via immediate demotion. Just look at him! He wuvs instinct work, and it's very important to only use it on him, making him a decent Fortitude trainer.

Based on Mizu's report… Medea, it's perfect for getting your Fortitude in order.

Ohboyohboyohboyohboy

Umm… No running in the... halls…



Let me just get one more quick photo…



The boxes from the second work are enough to give us our new dog's name: This is Ppodae. Ppodae is an adorable puppy who just wants pets and food.



...I'm gonna poke it with a stick.

The way Ppodae works is fairly simple: Any work that isn't instinct has a chance of lowering its QC by 1 upon the work's start. In addition, any Bad results decrease the QC by 1. With a QC of 2, it's entirely possible that any work but Instinct can free Ppodae in a single round.



Like so. When breaching, Ppodae transforms.



Aha! I knew there was an even cuteier cutie beneath the first cutie. Let's play, little guy~

He runs around and attacks for red damage, but Mizu could honestly win this fight pretty handily because he's just a TETH.

Um… fall back, Mizu! We need to observe what it does for a second!



Finally! I can prove myself by defeating an abnormality on my own! Then I'll get promoted, and become known as Zeta27, the greatest clerk of all time!



Each swing from Ppodae does low red damage to anything in its path, so it can damage multiple agents/clerks at once.

Are you sure you shouldn't run? You don't have any of the equipment an agent does…

I'm going to be a hero, like the rest of the Zeta name!

We're all going to die. You know that, right?

Not while I'm standi-



BARF! :gibs:



When Ppodae makes a single kill-be it agent or clerk-it changes back to normal and returns to its containment cell. This means it's not likely to do a lot of damage by itself. It also makes it a pain to suppress while there are clerks around.



Idiot. And now it's our job to clean this up…

I'll grab a mop.



I try making it breach again to get the suppression point towards our mission, but it just kills another clerk and winds up wasting time.

This does not seem like the best use of your time, X.

Eh. We'll run out of clerks eventually.



Manager! That Scarecrow is melting down, and according to our personnel files we don't have anyone able to work it without causing a breach!

Perfect. Send Mizu to hit it so it's good and angry.

Yes, sir!



Despite my best efforts, Scarecrow is going to be our first suppression of the day. We've seen Scarecrow breach before, and we had significantly fewer strong pieces of gear to deal with it then.



Alright, everyone. On the count of three, we jump in there and stuff this scarecrow!

You got it! Wait-where's Zeta21?

She said it was time for her break! Now! One, two...



Three!!

The fight really doesn't last very long, and since the Scarecrow decides to target D.A.D., we win without incident.



One down, three to go.



Alright. I've stuck most of Information and all of Training in his corridor. This time when Ppodae breaks out, we'll be ready.

Got a normal result. Also he didn't seem to mind the stick this time.

Just keep trying, until-



Right, change of plans. After that work, we move to suppress-



Dammit.

My options here are to try and beat Punishing Bird right now, or to focus on Ppodae and risk losing the bird 'til later. Since Ppodae is less effort to get to breach, I decide to let it just eat a third clerk. Now, let's talk about Punishing Bird's AI.



Punishing Bird first looks in the room that it's in for any agents. If there aren't any, it will then check rooms next to it for an agent. If it finds one, it moves towards them to begin pecking. Because of this, we can steer where it goes relatively easily.



By positioning my agents like this, with Mizu in the elevator and the rest of them in Training's main room, no matter where Punishing Bird went from the bottom corridor it would find an agent and immediately go towards them. From here it's a simple matter of moving Mizu to the main room, and we're ready to engage.



Alright, team. We're going to engage that bird.

Are you mad?! That thing can bite anyone in two in one chomp!

It's alright. I have a plan.

Alright then, let's hear it.

Mizu. I want you to shoot the thing.



Done. Now what?

Now, when it bites you… you need to not be there.

...this is a terrible plan.

Everyone else, attack!



WOOB WOOB WOOB!!

It's going to kill us. I know how this goes, it's going to-



-do nothing?

Now, once someone hits Punishing Bird, it goes into red mode. When this happens, Punishing Bird focuses on that single agent, following after them in order to bite them. Once this happens, every other agent in the entire facility can gang up on it with reckless abandon. However, we're on a time limit: After a period of time (~a minute or so), if Punishing Bird hasn't managed to kill its prey it decides to go home in a huff and the suppression is failed. Since our facility has a bunch of melee weapons, we don't have time to chase it around by having Mizu just run away from it.

The solution is as badass as it is stupid.



We have Mizu just walk right past the bird, ignoring it.



You know if you screw this up you're instantly dead, right?

HEH. That's why it's awesome!



This is the first frame where Punishing Bird's mouth can actually deal damage. Mizu has only 50 Justice, and is a strong contender for the slowest person in the facility. Despite this, by just running past it she can reach here in the time it takes the bird to decide to chow down.



Tylana, heads up!

I'm fine! The jaws just went around!

Finally, the hitbox only exists for the target Punishing Bird is focused on. If other agents are caught inside, it doesn't deal any damage to them. As scary as it seems, Punishing Bird is actually incredibly easy to suppress once you know how it works. It takes about 3-4 runbys, but eventually…



Guess what, cutie?



It turns out it's your turn to get punished~



...I'm just gonna say it? I can't believe that worked.

She just… dodged it.

So, Yesod? Am I brilliant or am I brilliant?

You're certainly something, manager.



And with that, we've taken care of two. Just two more to go, and next is going to be Ppodae.



It takes two more works, but Ppodae finally breaches into our five-man killteam.

You are ADORABLE! I ABSOLUTELY regret this! But you NEED to sit!



You know, I think he's actually cuter like this.

That's called 'having bad taste.'

Hey!



The five of them actually beat it up so quickly that Hod's message saying it escaped doesn't even have time to clear off the screen.

Well, that was easy. Now what?

Probably wait for the Manager to decide to let some other abnormality out, then deal with it.



One final note about Ppodae-when it reappears in its cell after being suppressed, it does so in a cute dog smoke cloud. This is clearly important enough to warrant its own section, and I'm not going to explain why.



Crimson Dawn.



Do you ever get tired of hammering these things every day?

Hell no. I just wish there were more of them.



Crimson Done.



Let's try getting Rudolta angry next. Mr.Blond, think you can do that?

Definitely. Hey, sleigh ride. I heard you liked cookies and milk? Go ahead and have a handful or six.

...And in case that doesn't work, Bishop, can you take care of Forsaken Murderer?



Yeah, I can handle that.



I've got this. You can focus on other stuff, boss.

That makes 4-for-4, then. Let's just take care of Rudolta and make it 5-for-4, while we're here.

As you like, Manager.

Hey, we need to get Ppodae's gear anyways, right?



On a related note, the full dossier of information's been completed. Try not to let it kill any more clerks today, sir.

No promises, but thank you.



Hey, any idea when I'm going to finally get to solo abnormalities?

That's not up to me. The manager'll put you to work when he thinks you're ready for it.

And when's that going to be?

This is just a guess… but maybe when we're no longer using TETH gear?

Yeah… probably that.



Crimson Noon

Come on, right now?! I was just about done shoving Rudolta's sled down its--I mean, encouraging it to breach!

*He does not, in fact, manage to get it to breach.



...Okay, I hate to admit it, but this thing's kicking our asses.

We should fall back.

Yeah. This thing can't do much but kill clerks anyways. Let's get out of here before-



HAHAHAHAHA! Come, Rudolta, rage of the festive season-let me show you what it is to laugh and have cheer!



Before anything else breaches.



Rudolta slides along slowly through the facility, and periodically inflicts White damage on everyone in its room.It's got more HP than any of the other HE threats we've seen so far, but its attack is rather lackluster to make up for it.



Ooh! It tingles.

Focus, Mizu.

First a cute li'l puppy, now the incarnation of holiday cheer. This just feels wrong.

The fight ends shortly after this. Not even Rudolta can hold a candle to our agents. The power curve will catch up to us eventually, but for right now our facility has a decisive advantage.

And that's five. Have the Training team intercept the Crimson Noon and take care of it.

Yes sir!



This is an even more decisive stomp than Rudolta received a few moments ago.



Alright, we're finally on the home stretch. All that's left to do is to handle getting Ppodae's equipment and we can relax. How do you like that, Netzach?

zzz…

…...Angela why am I not allowed to fire that man?

The number of rules and bylaws which govern the Sephirot's employment are staggering. Not even the upper management can fire them without complex procedures.

So he's a paper-pusher who doesn't push paper, and I can't fire him because the rules say I can't.

I am pleased to find that you can grasp a complex concept such as this so quickly.

...Do the rules say I'm not allowed to bring an airhorn to work?

Yes.

Dammit. Well, at least I'm almost done. Should just be one more meltdown before we can get Ppodae's gear and get--



...Well, it wouldn't be a day if absolutely everything didn't go wrong.



This is the second time this has happened-while Punishing Bird's meltdown was going on, I assigned someone to work it, but someone else triggered its breach beforehand. Both times, I got a message saying it breached, but it was instantly suppressed and went back home. It seems like a weird glitch with how Punishing Bird works, but it does still count as a breach. This is important because...

Music: First Trumpet


Angela.

Yes, X?

We've dealt with Scarecrow, the damned bird, two flavors of Crimson ordeal, evil gutbag Santa Claus, and a hammerhead prisoner-and we're only just now sounding an alarm?

The number of rules and bylaws which govern the warning system are also staggering. It would take far too long to explain them here.

This is dumb. Everyone, take it out.



I've taken too much damage. I'm pulling back!

I'll keep the cutie busy with some covering fire!



The Scarecrow does manage to suck out the brains of one of our clerks, healing itself by a pretty good amount even while Medea attacked it the entire time.

Music: neutral 2


In the end, though, the combined efforts of the Training team are too much for the Scarecrow.

...Alright. I guess that makes it 6 out of 4.

Umm... I'm certainly satisfied, at any rate!



Hey, boss? We got enough boxes down here to finish up extracting Ppodae's gear.

Excellent. We'll go ahead and call the day here, then.



Okay everyone, pack it in! It's quitting time!

Hey, team, I'm going to go take care of some business. Get started without me. I'll catch up.

Roger.



Are you really sure you don't know anything about this place?

I already told you, I just get gut urges and I follow them.

Six breaches in one day, and I didn't see anything about any agent deaths. Mizu's one thing, and Talow seems experienced, but Medea and Tylana aren't fighters and they didn't run into any trouble either.

I was just sure somehow that they could do it. Maybe it's the lifebars-I've noticed that they come in really handy.

Yeah, well… Good job today, Manager.



I do my best. That's all I can do.



Noting this down as a reminder-Every day ending in 1 or 6 is a Memory Repository day, meaning our status will be saved, and whatever Abnormality I pick is staying with us forever. Remember that, because…

Music: never frozen bottom flows


F-05-32: This is a forest full of hearts. No matter how many he cuts down, the forest remains dense.
T-04-50: If you feel an abdominal pain and a tingling sensation in your neck, the best thing you can do now is look at the great blue sky you'll never get to see again.
T-04-53: Bearing the hope to return to dust, it shall go back to the grave with all that desires to live.

Hahahahahaha

Let's start with -32. It's a mediocre temperance trainer with an upper stat limit like Scarecrow, but instead of breaking out it instantly kills someone. We could work it once and then ignore it, but it then becomes a guaranteed miss if we hit it on a meltdown, and I don't want any of those because of an upcoming mission. It's also a HE, making its gear only okay at this point in the game. Next is -50. It can and will level your entire facility just beecause you got kind of unlucky. Work with it is very unstable, and while it has incredibly good gear (and possibly the only helmet-slot item better looking than Laetitia's), it's got a decent chance of outright killing us if we get unlucky until around day 23 or so. Finally, there's -53. Its biggest selling point is a ranged White damage weapon, but it's a very picky abnormality. It likes to breach, with our current gear it would be a pain to suppress again, and we'd be spending a half an hour real time each day just running it down to get it to go back into its cell.

I want none of these. I like none of these. And not only do I have to pick one, it's going to be stuck in our facility forever, because it's getting Memory Repository'd to our facility. The only way out would be a day 1 reset, which I'm not doing.



After thinking about it, I wind up weighing -32's relative unobtrusiveness against -50's better gear at a higher chance of everyone dying. I then go look up what the gear looks like as a tiebreaker.



In a choice between crushing, injection, and exhaustion, I choose death by injection.



Let's hope it wasn't a horrible mistake!

Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: It is time to talk about the second truth.

New Guidelines

Ppodae

New Gear





New Story

Ppodae (Part 1)
Ppodae (Part 2)
Ppodae (Part 3)

[TeeQueue]

Abnormality Roundup 3

With Training's slots filled, it's time for another Abnormality Roundup-and with it some thoughts about how the facility is coming along. Honestly, I'm starting to worry… but only a little. We still don't have any really good Justice trainers at HE-level or above, so we're becoming fairly Mirror-dependent for our high level training. This will probably work out, but since Mirror is luck-based and my luck tends towards hilariously bad I'd really like to fix that either by the end of Safety, or at worst sometime in the next department. The only other thing I'd like to see is a WAW which breaches easily for an upcoming mission. There are two I have in mind, but we'll see what happens-there is NO rush on this, since we'll have plenty of chances to roll one.

Scarecrow Searching for Wisdom



I'm slowly starting to come around on the ol' Scarecrow. He is annoying, requiring a beatdown after any work from someone with a Prudence higher than 3. However, he's not a particularly difficult opponent and he's got middling base chances in Repression to go with his absolutely absurd Prudence training potential. This thing is responsible for more 30>100 stat growth days than any other abnormality in the facility, and it's hard to argue with results. I wouldn't recommend it if you want to avoid fighting in your facility, but since breaches aren't a bad thing unless they're killing your agents, and sometimes can come in incredibly handy… if you're willing to put up with it, it might actually… be good…? Oh god, I feel so conflicted right now.

Anyways, its gear has excellent Red resistance, but a weakness to Black makes it a much better option in the early game. Overall, I think that an early Scarecrow is actually really good if you're able to micromanage your way through its brand of assault, but as the game goes on it becomes a worse pick. Maybe that's why I'm so fond of it this time-I've never seen it this early before.


Punishing Bird



Punishing Bird. Mediocre gun, mediocre suit, Red damage but best at Insight work… It has a best-in-slot E.G.O Gift if you're prioritizing Justice above everything else, but otherwise it's completely mediocre, escapes all the time, and in general is basically "eh."

It's also completely vital to our long term strategy, as it's a piece of what I shall hereafter refer to as 'Birdzodia.' Birdzodia is built from three related abnormalities, all of which are birds like Punishing Bird here. It is the most profitable way to approach one of the later game missions, and we're going for it. Because of that, we had to take Punishing Bird.

Also, I just like it.


Knight of Despair

Knight of Despair's breaching version


Her E.G.O Suit is the only one below ALEPH-level that enables working Pale damage abnormalities without immediately risking death. That's the first, most important consideration to make with Knight of Despair. The second: her E.G.O Gift is amazing, and another high-priority one if you're maxing out Justice. She's not amazing at training, being decent for a WAW at Insight and mediocre for Attachment-but she has one very important thing going for her: She's safe. She keeps one agent well guarded, at the cost of not allowing them to work for the rest of the day-this is best given to agents who are not going to be working much anyways, like Talow or Mizu in our current facility. So long as that agent doesn't die, she's happy to stay in her cell all day. We don't have to touch her. She will never breach, she will never hurt our agents, and we will be fine.

But if we do screw up and she does break out, we're in trouble: Her attacks deal 50 Pale damage per hit. As a reminder: 100 Pale damage will kill anyone, and most suits we have have 2x Pale vulnerability. Overall, she's a minor threat and her protective ability makes later content easier-an easy pickup recommended for any facility.


Ppodae



Ppodae is super cute widdle boy who wuvs Instinct work most of all, and he makes a pretty good early Instinct trainer. However, he has 2 fewer boxes per work than Forsaken Murderer, trading them for 60% base chance across all 5 instinct levels instead. This makes him a strictly worse trainer than Murderer, since most of the time the 2 additional rolls are better for XP than a 10% higher chance at levels 3-5. Still, he breaches, he's a low threat to the facility overall, and he trains Instinct. Ppodae is just a slightly safer but slightly less efficient Forsaken Murderer.

But he's so CUTE, lookit the widdle doggie, aww whosagoodboyit'syouyesitis!!!

Oh, and one more thing about Ppodae:



Mizu got his gift, and has dog ears now. They didn't show up in the update due to a graphical glitch, but they're there.

[TeeQueue]

By the way, are you going to post any of the fan creations in the other thread to that Reserved post? I think they're worthy of preserving.

Once we've caught up completely I'll be updating the Reserved post, because there's some Amazing Stuff in there, but some of it wouldn't make sense until we get past certain points.

[Gespenst]

Ppodae... I wasn't being ironic when I said that that thing is the most unsettling thing in my facility, that dog creeps me out way more then it has any right to, I think it's a mix of the "cute by design" aesthetic (this games sums it up best with Angela's "if my appearance is appealing to you, then it's working as intended" line) and its story hit a really effective note of horror and got deep under my skin.

[TeeQueue]

Synchronizing Memory Repository . . .

Day 16: Story

Music: Dungeon - Wrong Way Street


How much do you know about the company? I have met many a “manager” in my time. I have seen how the company exploited them. Did they tell you that you’re special?

I… had honestly just assumed that was because nobody had died. _{Except Ishmael.}

You gullible fool.



Don’t trust the company. It is a company that everyone desperately wants to work for. I suppose the same kind of desperation led you here. But harvesting energy is only half of the business in this place.



However, this company runs much deeper than one might expect. There was a time when everyone worked hard for the same goal. But we lost integrity along the way, and things went downhill from there.



...well now I just feel bad.

In summary: B says that the company is hiding something, and we're not special and don't really matter, since the company only wants to exploit us. He also mentions that everyone used to work towards one goal, but the company's lost its way and things have gotten worse over time.

Music: When Tv Turns Off




What lies? I’ve never lied to you…

“You always lie to us when we’re in a vulnerable state.”

“What’s the point of your ‘counseling’. The only one you’re trying to comfort with your lip service is yourself.”

“You thought that the momentary satisfaction could make you a better person?”



“No matter what you do, you’re never going to become a good person, and we’re all going to die in the end.”

“Feeding your ego through ‘kind’ acts makes you a better person?”

“You must be so hopelessly delusional to think that.”

No…

"We will all die."



“For what?”

In summary: Hod has an incredibly bad trip and talks to dead people.

Well… at least we get a new mission.



...Are you sure that's all? I've had that cleared for days.

Um… huh? Oh… uh, yeah.

And I shouldn't worry about a Sephirah hearing voices..?

They are an incredibly buggy and inferior existence when compared to my own, X.

Oooookay then. Moving on.



Hey, Netzach… you think you could try being awake for today?

Nah.

Care to elaborate?

Nah.

......Dooo it anyways?

Saw what you picked. Don't feel like watching the team die again. Taking a nap. Satisfied?

Y'know what, it's a start. Have a good nap, Netzach.

Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation:









Hell…

Something wrong, kid?

Oh… nothing big. Just some Safety concerns.

Pft-I'm stealing that one. What's up?

Besides our Sephirah not doing anything? The department captain's a total nutjob. Always talking about smiling, and I'm pretty sure he somehow made Rudolta breach yesterday by being happy at it.

Mr.Black is an… acquired taste.

How did you deal with him?

Same as any other agent. We're all here to do a job, whether we're from the Nests or the Backstreets.

You're kidding, right? He's a loud, obnoxious git.

Who jumped in at the drop of a hat to test a new tool, so you wouldn't have to. I think this is just his way of being serious.

Still, wouldn't kill him to find another one.

You've seen what goes on here. Any way someone keeps sane here's a good way.

Yeah, I guess you're right.

No… I'm D.A.D.

Was that-

[Gespenst]

It's wierd but it almost seems like Malkuth is the most stable sephirah we've met, between Hod's ongoing breakdown, Yesod being unable to look at himself without seeing his flesh rotting away, and now Netzach has given up so hard that he can only function by being extremely stoned at all times. Also is probably a few dark thoughts away from suicide (if that's even possible for a sephirah).
It's a pretty horrifying thought.

[TeeQueue]

Synchronizing Memory Repository . . .

Day 16: Gameplay

Music: neutral 3


New department, new research options. Let's take a look.

Regenerator Mk2: Boosts HP healing at every healing tic. The base amount of healing is doubled from 6 to 12. Netzach's clerk bonus is unaffected by this research-it boosts healing by the same amount regardless.

Mental Corruption Neutralizing Gas: As Regenerator Mk2, but for SP instead of HP.

Regenerator Distinguisher Modification: The main room's regenerator now continues working even when an enemy is inside the room, albeit at half speed.

All of them are useful, so it's basically a choice between 'number go up' and a slight tactical advantage you'll hopefully only rarely need. The gas is a bit lower priority since red damage is still everywhere this early, but all three are solid improvements.



I just like to go for tactical advantages, no matter how small.



Also our clerks are better! ...yay?



With our agents having grown past what Scarecrow can do, some reshuffles are necessary. Mizu kicks it over to Safety, and Tenebrais/Credentia head to Training for some advanced leveling. Sephiroth, SeyserKoze, and Boksi all come back off the bench, with Boksi being placed on Scarecrow duty.





It doesn't matter… just do whatever.



I've seen some messed up shit in this place, and this still takes the cake.



Aww, it's a cutie!

You wanna work it, then?

Duh. I was about to head right over!

Can I take notes? I'm interested in your methods when looking at new abnormalities.



Go ahead! I'm just going to get acquainted with this new cutie.

So our new abnormality is some sort of freaky beehive… thing.



Our first two works give us a name-Queen Bee-and tell us that it's an unescaping entity with a QC of 1. That means if we annoy it, it'll do… Something.



...hey, where'd everybody go?

They were loud. Pawned 'em off on Yesod.

...well okay then!



Manager!

I can't fire him, Yesod.

Angela!

Ask the manager.

Mrgrgr..!

Cheer up, Yesod! You'll barely notice that we're here! HAHAHAHA!

He's like a boomerang. No matter where we toss him, he winds up back here.

Yeah, he's amazing like that.

Amazing isn't the word I would use.



A couple of works later, Mizu gets a neutral result and the QC drops to 0. Uh-oh.



The Queen emits some sort of gas…



And fires it out across the department.



...anyone feel any different?

Nah, we're good.

Huh. How boring.



MY SKIN IS LITERALLY ON FIRE.

Astounding, isn't it?! Why, this may be the most pain I've ever felt!

...Yeah, I'm going on break.



When the Queen fires off her pollen, a number of agents/clerks from her department are infected by it, no matter where they're at. This pollen deals 8 Red damage every 2 seconds for the next 20 seconds, and also completely blocks healing by our regenerator.

Mr.Black is still just fine since he has 100 fortitude, but Mr.Blond there is chopped down to a tiny sliver of health before the effect turns off.



These two have lower Fortitude, so it comes down to math. Mr.Blond has 67 HP and HE armor with a Red resist of 0.8. Each hit will deal him 6.4 damage, at 10 hits that's 64 damage-he lives, by a sliver. Twee has 69 HP _(nice), her TETH armor takes 1.2x damage from Queen Bee's pollen, and she has a Red resist of 0.7. This works out to 6.72 damage, at 10 hits that's 67.2 damage. She also lives-also barely. If an agent cannot tank 80 red damage, they have absolutely no business being in Queen Bee's department.

Meanwhile…


Orders from the top, everyone!

Let's see… SeyserKoze, you're on 1.76 MHz duty. Sephiroth, you'll be handling Forsaken Murderer today. And I'm… with Laetitia?

I told Yesod you could hang out in his department while you were down there. He didn't say no!

Alright. Can I trust you two not to screw up?

I'll take care of the radio.

There is nothing to fear. I shall show this Forsaken one the way to the promised land.

...That's probably a yes.

_{Why is my department the popular one..?}



Let's all do our best today!

Where's Talow?

He took one look at the photo of that weird Queen Bee abnormality and took off to get the Knight of Despair's protection. He said he'd need it...

Heh. Chicken. It's not a fight unless you can really feel the bones snapping.

Wouldn't you not want that to include your bones..?

Enough talk. What task could be so complex as to require taking me off of administrative duty?

Oh, yes. Um… Boksi, you're training with Scarecrow today. Tenebrais, you'll be with Ppodae. Credentia, please keep the Knight of Despair company. Medea, keep an eye out for any problems.

You got it, boss!



Manager, we have passed the first Meltdown level.

I know. Let's just see which dawn we're…



Purple? They come in purple?

It's Violet, Manager.

Same thing. Everyone, stay cautious-but keep going.



They're here, Manager.



It's some kind of… glowing, gooey orb. Ew.



Our new guest, The Fruit of Understanding, is our first Violet ordeal. Violet Dawn is not very threatening as a combatant, dealing only a small amount of damage very slowly. However, the battle against Violet Dawn is a race to the finish-if left alive it will blow itself up and set off every abnormality in the same department as it. Since it's a DPS race, the best option is to bunch up everyone in a department and throw them at that department's Dawn.



I didn't know you actually did work around here, Zeta.

You have to ration out your vacation to survive here. This just isn't worth using paid time for.



This gun is amazing! It feels like it's firing bolts of energy with each trigger pull.

I find the best weapon is the one that carves a smile into the enemy's flesh!

Oh, is that why you use the Scarecrow's spear?

Precisely, my girl!



At the end of the day, Violet Dawn just isn't a threat to our facility anymore. It's at its worst if we we're completely unprepared for it on day 6 or 7, or if we just let it sit there while we think about how to approach it. At worst, the self-destruct will kill a new player once before they get the hang of it.



We are ready to end the day at any time. But I assume…

We don't have the Queen Bee's gear yet. We don't even have her full information.

We continue.

I am an incredibly advanced AI. At this point, I am quite capable of reading the basic patterns of your form of thinking, and reacting accordingly. I shall continue operational protocols.

And so modest, too.



Not long after, something bad happens. Can you see it? I didn't, because I was focused on assigning Zeta21 some work orders. The pollen hit two clerks in Safety this time.

Luckily, people dying to this make a pretty distinctive noise, and I was on edge for it the entire day.



This is when I noticed and looked over.

What is that..?



It's a bee.

Yes, I can see-Wait, you're awake?!

Don't like the buzzing.

Right, then what's that other shining spot there?

Was a clerk. Now…



It's another bee.

Bees? My god.

These bees can spiral out of control quickly-anything they kill becomes another bee. However, they're HE-level threats that deal Red damage, and our facility is tuned to wipe out Green Noons. So long as we don't let them eat through more than 1-2 clerks, we're in no danger.



Mizu, go west and up. Sweep the North corridor. Suppress any abnormality you see.

Here I come, cuties~

Betas, stay in the main room. Or die. Not like you'll escape it in the end.

Well I'm not going anywhere now.



Yesod, need to borrow some agents.

Which ones?

All of them. Go up and sweep the corridor from the other side as Mizu.

...Hmph. Get to it, everyone.

Move out, team!



Mizu and the bee hit each other for 5 damage a shot, but Mizu fires 2-3 times per one hit from the bee. Mizu has 102 HP, the drone has 120. This does not end well for the bee.



The other bee dies so quickly that I didn't even catch the fight on camera.

There. I can finally go back to sleep. Night, manager.

Goodnight, Netz-hey, wait-!

zzz...

Geez… at least I can count on him for anything loud, I guess.



I got it.



You know-ouch!-I know you're mortal now. I've seen you-ow!-bleed. And the bees didn't overrun everything-geh!-either. Nobody died. I don't-hey!-think I'm as scared of you as I was before.



You can still stop anytime, you know...



Manager, the full information on Queen Bee is now available.

Perfect. That means I'll have all the equipment in… 220 more boxes… Today's going to suck.



Speaking of which, Manager, a noon ordeal has appeared! It's a Green Noon! Let's intercept and defeat it perfectly!

I'm going to go get some coffee. The universe can stay on pause for a minute.



Hey, it's been a while since I last went down this corridor in a big group.

Weren't the rest of them going to kick your ass last time?

Only if I went crazy. I didn't, so it's all good!



Obligatory gratuitous chainsaw shot.



And Mizu solos the one in Safety, of course.

Hey, Netzach was right! Those two guys didn't survive in the end after all!

...at least they didn't turn into bees, I guess.



With everything under control, all that's left to do is to collect the rest of the Queen Bee's gear.



Okay cutie, you made a bunch of pollen go everywhere. Let's just clean that up, and get to work on raking in those boxes… _{I wonder what your Enkephalin tastes like..?}

Meanwhile…


Hey, boss. Would I get in trouble if I clonked an agent over the head for being annoying?

Umm… yes? Why?

Hmhmhm. Hmhmhm! HM HM HM!!!

...um… are you laughing?

I suppose you could say that. I've been granted a gift by the scarecrow, befitting my talent and station.

Oh, like the radio Tenebrais and I got from 1.76 MHz?

I suppose, but as a HE abnormality, the one from the scarecrow is clearly more special. Just more proof of my overwhelming talent.

Hmm…

No reason.

---



...Twee? Where were you?

Mirror meltdown. Had to go take a look.

You look paler.

Yeah… My Fortitude got lowered a little bit, but it's probably no big deal!

So at Meltdown level 7 I screwed up by sending Twee to a melting mirror. Remember how she was spec'd to just barely survive a Queen Bee tantrum?



That's not happening anymore. We're walking a tightrope and I just set the net on fire.

I swear I'm good at this game. To salvage things, I move Mizu from working Instinct to buff her Fortitude to Insight, which is a better success rate.



Angela… Forsaken Murderer is upset.

It appears so. We have been doing Instinct work with him like usual.

Malkuth. Who've we been sending?

It's been Sephiroth all day, sir!



Sephiroth, you utter nitwit… Hey, Talow. Can you take care of this guy again?

Sir, that won't be necessary.

Tenebrais? What are you doing here?



Burning off some frustration. What's it look like?

...Alright, he's all yours. Don't die.



Not a problem, boss.



Miss Tenebrais! Don't worry, I'll support you!

...okay?



No need to thank me, Miss Tenebrais.

Wasn't gonna. Later.



She's so cool! Did you see that?

I saw! And that part at the end…

She doesn't need to thank us, because she sees us as equals-our help's just to be expected! What a visionary!



Anyways, the work continues until we've only got one suit left to get, and only need ~42 more energy to finish it. That's most likely going to be 3 works, so I think we should be-



Hold on.



Ow. Ow. Ow.

-While the bird finishes giving Talow a mild concussion, Mizu finishes off the last works with Queen Bee without incident. We've survived!

Finally done. And it only took until...



Holy crap, nine? That's a long day. Good work, Mizu.

Thanks, Manager!

Shall we press forward?

Nah, we've pushed our luck enough today.



zzz… huh?! Over already? 'Kay.

We still don't have any agents who are 100 in everything yet. Mizu's very close, as are Mr.Black and Zeta21 at 2 stats maxed out each. That's going to change quickly over the coming days.

Music: never frozen bottom flows


T-02-71: Tell the kid today's treat is going to be grape-flavored candy. It's his favorite.
O-03-93: Let us meet again as stars.
O-05-76: Someone's persistent gaze can be felt from the keyhole inside the machine.

...I get that you're trying, but I'm not sure I forgive you yet, game.

Let me explain! The first abnormality, -71, is a WAW abnormality which is incredibly easy to keep in containment and who actually works relatively well as a Justice trainer. If it ever escapes it's a giant pain in the butt to deal with and its gear is only average for a WAW, but it's a solid pick. Then there's -76, which either is the second-best HE-level Justice trainer in the game if you know the trick, or an absolute nightmare if you don't. There is no in-between. Since I know the trick, this would be another very powerful Justice trainer. Unfortunately, they're both outclassed by -93. It's our first ALEPH, and it will either murder the entire facility or serve as a wonderful finisher for our stronger agents. It requires high Prudence and Attachment to work at all-the two stats our facility is best at cranking out. It also has a consistent 40% Repression work rate regardless of level, making it ideal for powering up an agent's Justice after they have maxed the first two stats. It also has our first ALEPH-tier gear.



It's time to grab an ALEPH.

Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: Netzach asks us for a solid.

New Guidelines

Queen Bee

New Gear


Requirements: Fortitude 3


Requirements: Level 3

New Story

Queen Bee (Part 1)
Queen Bee (Part 2)

[TeeQueue]

Mechanics Talk 13: Handling Impossible Abnormalities

At some point, every manager gets hit by an Abnormality that they just can't handle. Resetting back to Day 1 or a Memory Repository can work most of the time, but since most annoying Abnormalities have excellent gear it can be worth it to try and keep them around anyways. Today, we'll be discussing some considerations to keep in mind when dealing with a situation like this. Since all the Abnormalities are so different, all I can really give is some things to keep in mind-we're going a bit more vague than usual today.

First off: it's important to know going in whether we're going to be keeping the abnormality or doing some kind of reset. If we're resetting, we can throw away resources much more freely than if we're not.

The most important thing to do when dealing with a problem abnormality is know what it does. If an Abnormality is giving us trouble, we can poke it with our best agents until we find something that works, and use that to unlock the Managerial Tips. Retries are free, and burning a couple on getting full information on an Abnormality's rules is a good trade.

Once we know the rules of the Abnormality, we get to take a look at our facility and figure out a plan to work with it. Ideally, we'll just have an agent who can consistently work with it and not mess up whatever rules it has, but that's not always an option. When it's not, we should look to our tools to see if any can give us an advantage to make things more workable. In our case, that's Mirror, Portrait and You Must Be Happy. Using them we could do something like lower our Fortitude to work an Abnormality with a Fortitude cap (temporarily or permanently), or try and pass our damage onto an agent who can use the regenerator to heal back up.

Sometimes, clever micromanagement can also manage to deal with problems with Abnormalities. Punishing Bird is the primary example, but there are a number of Abnormalities which can be dealt with by placing agents by themselves in the general area of the cell and using them as necessary. For instance: one we may see at some point makes the agent into a sort of 'plague bearer' which must be carefully kept away from everyone else in the facility or else they'll infect everyone with horrible pink deathflu. To deal with it, I'd wind up moving the other agents in the department to a different room, and micromanage movements in order to ensure that nobody's paths ever crossed. This would mean that only the clerks would catch horrible pink deathflu, and as we all know clerks don't count.

The last option is one for if we don't think we can handle the Abnormality, but think we'll be able to do it soon: Ignore it. Abnormalities don't need to be worked unless they've been hit by a Meltdown, and a number of them can be ignored even when melting down. It's worth a shot. The downside of this, however, is that Meltdowns spawn more frequently throughout the day as it goes on-using this tactic forces shorter days, which in turn causes less training, which in turn can lead to being underequipped for future Abnormalities… Lobotomy Corporation's most insidious deaths are the ones that happen slowly, over the course of 5-10 days.

Anyways, that's pretty much it for options when dealing with a particularly frustrating Abnormality. Just remember: Figure out how it works, consider what your facility has and how you can work around how it works, and the Memory Repository is always there if we need it-the game heavily expects us to use it.

[Gespenst]

The worst abnormalities are the ones that you straight-up can't work. -76 is a good example of that because all works will fail if you do the wrong thing, no successful works means no PE boxes means no managerial tips to find out what you're doing wrong. something like the scarecrow isn't a problem because while it will breach if you do the wrong thing, it's only after the work is done, you can still unlock it's information.
also Queen Bee, the perfect example of clerks as a liability. every clerk is a bee waiting to cause problems. if you have some method to kill off clerks (the scarecrow could work if it wan't in the other side of the facility) then it's very little threat as long as your agents can eat 80 red damage from a WAW.

[TeeQueue]

Synchronizing Memory Repository . . .

Day 17 - Story

Music: Wake up


At least she admits to it.

I also know how I should have represented myself, as a part of the system. Having distrust in me would mean distrusting the company itself, and by extension to distrust its founder, who was responsible for creating me. I know what the one who calls himself ‘B’ planted in you. I know how it has taken root in the soil of your mind, and sprouted upon you.



This is another random line, our first since day 1! They're all also just variations of this, talking about her overlooking things out of trying to earn trust.



And while it took 15 days to hit our first return of random lines, the next one is the very next line. She has three different ways to say "I have no choice but to wait."

Perhaps you could have ignored what this ‘B’ said, and concentrated on your job. Instead, you kept on listening to ‘B’, and he finally succeeded in seeding distrust in you.

Music: mirror dimensions


In summary: Angela is going to murder B.

Music: Forgotten Entrance of Memories


In the game script X is supposed to think (Netzach’s eyes are closed) prior to this line, but this was cut out. Makes sense, since we can see his eyes are closed already.

When I shut my eyes, I feel like I’m in another place altogether. I see a different world, one I had belonged to. I think I remember doing something there, hoping to save someone else’s life. But here I am now.



What’s the point of delaying the inevitable… Those who work here have no future. None of those little things called plans and dreams. No self-reflections, no hopes to become a better person tomorrow. All of that’s a luxury they can’t afford.



Why do I have to bear the pain and get through it all, knowing tomorrow is going to be just as dreadful? We’re just lemmings running straight for the edge of the cliff… Speaking of, could we get a vending machine for beer?



I am developing a deep respect for the audacity of this AI.

>I'll order one for you.


What's so low about me? I’m just trying to improve the employee welfare.

---

>You know I can't do something like that.


Oh, I’d sure love to see you make it happen to me, ma’am.

---

Routes Merge Here




In summary: Netzach continues to be amazing, requesting a beer machine be installed and calling out Angela when she tries telling him off over it. He's lost his ability to give a single damn. Like the other Sephirot, he seems to have vague memories of a time before the company.



We pick up Netzach's new mission while we're here. It isn't too hard, so long as we don't get careless when working White damage abnormalities.



Netzach…

If it isn't about the beer machine, I don't care.

I have a lot less control around here than I'd like. Frankly, a beer machine sounds great. But having alcoholics on staff...

It's not as big a problem as you'd think. Wasted employees die, but the energy comes out the same. That's all you care about, right?

That's all Angela cares about. I'm trying to move in a different direction.

Whatever you say. One more thing… can you get Mizu to stay out of my stash?

Stash?

The enkephalin I use... For counseling. She went through half of it last night after we closed up, and came in this morning asking if she could have more.

_{How is she still breathing?} I'll ask, but no promises. The agents don't always listen to me.

Cool. Night.

...Goodnight, Netzach.

Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: Sephiroth continues to be a disappointment.










Oh hey there, SeyserKoze. What brings you to the Training department today?

You guys offer counseling, right?

Yes, but I can't authorize any enkephalin if that's-

I'm good, thanks. It's my hair. I told you how it can predict danger, right?

You did mention that. It's technology from one of the other Wings, right?

Yeah. It's been going off non-stop since I got back on active duty, and I'm starting to get worried.

Ahh… That's natural, I think.

How's that?

Somewhere deep down, everyone here is terrified. We don't know which day might be our last, so the most we can do is try and get through each day without incident. That uncertainty you're feeling… we all have it, you, me, even the Abnormalities.

Abnormalities aren't people. They don't have emotions.

I'm not so sure about that. I've been learning a lot about Abnormalities by working with them, and they seem to have wants and fears the same as any of us. I mean... It makes sense, doesn't it? They come from the human consciousness, so they must be similar.

I guess it's possible? It doesn't really help me, though.

Just try to remind yourself that everyone's afraid, and the most important thing is to not let yourself be overcome by that fear. Face the Fear, Build the Future, you know?

Isn't that just the company motto?

Hey, it's relevant! Just make sure to take the warning for what it is, and be careful.

Yeah… alright. I'll do that. Thanks.

No problem. You feeling better?

A bit. I think I'll be back, if I start feeling anxious again.

You're welcome anytime. It really helps to get these things off your chest!

[Quackles]

Well, Angela did say...

Give them a vending machine and next they will come knocking, demanding a bar. I expect you to make the right decision.

I can appreciate Netzach's chutzpah to combine the two requests.

[Nanimani]

Hey, we're pretty much caught up now. Cool.

[TeeQueue]

Yeah, we should be all caught up within a week.

[TeeQueue]

Synchronizing Memory Repository . . .

Day 17 - Gameplay

Music: neutral 3


Let's start with some E.G.O gift talk. On the deployment screen, we can bring up a list of all an agent's E.G.O gifts by clicking the arrow next to their stats. Today, we're mostly focused on the lock and the box next to each gift listing. The box lets us turn off and on the appearance of an E.G.O gift on an agent, and we're not using it. If we click on the lock…



It closes, and fills in. Now, Mizu's mask will not be changed out even if we roll another eye slot gift.



Shuffling around equipment. Mizu and Mr.Black get the stylish new suits, and D.A.D. gets the Laetitia suit to finally get them out of the 1.76 gear.





It doesn't matter… just do whatever.



Man… we've been working our butts off, and we're still only level 3 agents? What's it take to get higher than that?

To become a Soldier 1st class, I had to undergo a multitude of dangerous experiments and infusions of mako. The path to power is fraught with risk.

I think what he means is that you'll start getting higher gains once you're promoted to work with the higher-level Abnormalities.

I hope it's soon… I wouldn't mind a pay raise.

Speaking of higher-level Abnormalities…



This is our newest addition-a very leggy individual indeed.



It needs a lot of boxes to get any information out of it-unlocking its information alone will cost us a total of 142 PE boxes.

Time to see how Mizu handles it.



Oh… wow, you are a powerful cutie, aren't you? Are those legs yours, or do they belong to everyone else who tried to get to your heart~



How was our new ward?

Not bad… the li'l cutie it seems to like Insight work, so we'll get along fine. Would not recommend footrubs, though. It almost kicked me, and that probably would have taken my head off.

You tried to give it a footrub?

Of course! You'd understand if you were there.

As for Queen Bee, ideally we'd have a way to use it for Instinct training due to it being a Red damaging WAW. However, if its spores land on someone who just had a bad time Instinct training with it they would be instantly doomed.



Wait, you want me to what?

For today, you'll be working with the Queen Bee.

The solution is to just send someone from outside the department.



Wow… You really don't move, do you? I expected more out of a WAW.



Meanwhile, Mizu manages to get another work done successfully. Note the -6% Overload penalty-ALEPH success rates decay even faster than WAWs do.



That lets us unlock its basic information. Our ALEPH now has a name: Blue Star.

This isn't so bad.

So long as it doesn't escape, an ALEPH is much like any other Abnormality. However, if you are careless it is inevitable that it will bring about the end of the facility.

Ah, right. Well, let's not get everyone killed.



Our first meltdown goes without incident, and we get extremely lucky: A meltdown on Blue Star means we can get an extra work in with it before it starts overloading-those extra 20-30 boxes go a long way towards unlocking things. No points for guessing that Hod is telling us about Punishing Bird breaking out. Speaking of-



Ow. Ow. Ow.

It never gets old.



X, while you were preoccupied with watching Talow, the Mirror has almost fully melted down.

...wait, we get two meltdowns this early?

Sure enough, I completely neglected to see how many meltdowns would spawn, and this caught me completely off guard. Despite being clearly visible earlier. Forgetting that things scale is going to be a recurring problem today.



Hey, boss, Queen Bee work didn't go great. Probably gonna' have spores.

Everyone, prepare to intercept.

...Yeah, I'm going on break.

Only until you're done bleeding.



Okay, I caught sight of the two affected employees. We're going to have one bee incoming, everyone get ready.

_{(Can you catch the error? I didn't at the time!)}



...bees? Mr.Black, handle them.

Gladly!!



The Hornet gun is amazingly effective against these worker bees, due to their Red weakness and its ability to fire from outside of the enemy's range.



These clerks keep walking in and dying! This is quite a problem, hahaha!!

The Bee AI seems to prioritize whatever nearby would die the fastest, meaning they swap targets to get reinforcements whenever possible.

_{This damn buzzing…} Mizu, get in there and help. Mr.Black, pull back once you reach 25% of your health.

Sir!



That's another cutie down!

Status report, how many are left?



Two just outside of Safety-_{well, three now…}

Send Mizu their way!



Two more on Control's lower level, sir!

Control's only really got Bishop… Send the Training team to deal with them! They might multiply before we get there, so we need the power!



Two more on lower information.

Rrgh… got it! D.A.D. and Tylana, get on it! Zeta21, too! Twee, retreat to Training main room!



Two cuties taken care of!



We've got things handled down here.

Take care of it while I've got its attention!

This is for getting between me and my coffee time!



Four up here now, but we've got it under control!

Four, twenty, who cares? BRING IT ON!

Miiight need to suppress Tenebrais after this, though.

Thank goodness. We've got everything under control…



What.



Control, report!

One of the bees Mizu was after escaped up into Control and came in here! It uh… made some friends!

My hair was tingling something fierce!

Manager, there's too many! We're getting swarmed up here, and they've spread out again!

How's everyone's health looking?

Mizu and Mr.Black are recovering, and Mr.Blond was hurt in the initial pollen. If they fight now, at least it'll be a quick death.

Control team is on its last legs, and we've taken a casualty Manager, but we can still perform the suppression perfectly! Just give the word!

The bees in Information have weakened our fighting potential by 75%.

Umm… Tenebrais is injured, but the rest are mostly alright! Maybe if we send Talow in-

No good, he'll get overwhelmed.



All hands, report to the Training main room right the hell now!

So things have gone from bad to worse. We'll analyze things more after this is all taken care of but for now, I just want to note that in times of crisis against multiple enemies, it's usually a good plan to put everyone in the facility into one of your main rooms where they can heal and their damage output can be maximized against any intruders.



Any bees who come in just melt.

Is everyone here?!

Training's accounted for-just counted!

Worry not, for the Safety team is all here!

Information's on site.

Control's here-what's left of us, anyway.

Alright! Everyone, catch your breath! This day isn't over yet!

Ooh, you're being all leader-y.

Someone has to do it.

Ah-hem.

Oh, you're still here? _{Normally you'd have stopped replying by now.}

Look, I get that the situation is a little…



Complicated.

A little.

The point is, we can still do this. Everyone, one team, go out and take care of the bees.



It's true that the remaining agents can handle the situation, manager. But… please, reconsider.



The bees are everywhere. Every employee in the company aside the agents is already dead.

Clerks don't-

Sephiroth counted.

…



You've cleared out one hallway, but there are still more. You may get away without any more casualties now, but you'll have to replace Sephiroth from scratch-and the cleanup time will keep the clerks we don't have anymore busy for a week.

Yeah, I get it. Bees are bad, and screwed up everything. What do you want me to do about it?

…You don't know?

He doesn't know.

Um… Miss Angela must not have mentioned it because he was doing so well?

What are you all looking at me like that for.

Manager, the Time Track protocols we have installed at this facility can do more than simply speed up or pause time. It is possible to reverse time itself to return to the beginning of the day, or if absolutely necessary a much earlier point in the timeline.



So... you mean I get a do-over?

Should you choose to, yes.

Well, then.



Let's give it one more go. With feeling.

Yes, X.


Retry count: 1

When we retry, we get this loading screen as the system returns to the start of the day, before…

Music: neutral 2


I'm back. Who else knows about this?

The memories of all the Sephirot have been synchronized. They are aware of any jumps made. The employees are not aware anything has happened. For them, it is a normal beginning of the day.

We're back to the deployment screen. All of our changes are already saved-everything is exactly the same as right before we last clicked begin management. So, that went poorly! Still, losses in Lobotomy Corporation are only bad if you don't learn from them. As a result it's time for our first...

Music: Third Trumpet
Post Mortem

The long and short of it is: I got sloppy. First with Queen's initial pollen burst, there were 3 infected agents, and I stopped counting after I saw 2 because yesterday had 2. Queen Bee seems to vary the number of infections based on the number of people in the department, which went up when we expanded it-I didn't account for that and didn't double-check my work. Then, when dealing with the escaped Bees, one of the ones next to Safety snuck past Mizu while she was running down to deal with them-it went up to upper Control and I never checked to make sure there weren't problems there. My footage shows that there was a highlighted corridor up there on screen for a second, but I missed it since it was in the corner and I was focusing elsewhere. A pause to make certain there weren't bees anywhere near the top would have solved the issue, and so would have sending everyone who was a low-HP character over to Training to be protected by Tenebrais, Talow, and Credentia while the others cleared the facility.

We still were in a position where we could have passed the day since our facility's deathball shredded the bees in seconds, but clearing out all the bees at that point would have taken a while. With one agent already dead I decided to simply pull out and give it another go.

In the end, this retry was entirely because I got careless multiple times in a row.

Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: Day 17 again, but with 90% less failure.








Meanwhile…


That's it, I guess. The Sephirot and the manager've stopped responding.

Is that such a bad thing? No bosses means no orders. Permanent breaktime.

We can just keep going like normal, right?

Nah. This is the end. Today isn't ever going to stop.

Hold up. You're talking like you've seen this before.

It happens. The higher-ups all stop responding, and there's nothing left for us to do. You can try leaving, if you want. We've got… 24, maybe 48 hours before the Qliphoth Deterrence degrades to the point where the Abnormalities come out. With Blue Star around, that'll be the end of everyone-at least it should be a quick death.

...I think he's right guys. My hair's trembling like never before.

What the hell are you saying?!

I'm saying the manager's abandoned us. Mizu, could you point your gun right here?

Oh, sure!



Wait… Talow, what are you doing?! Don't just give up-you've been here longer than anyone!

You have no idea. Mizu, do it.

Uhh… I don't know what's going on, but okie-dokie!



TALOW!!!



---



Hey everyone! I'm all set and ready for a good morning-I just helped SeyserKoze through a couple of issues, and I really think he's going to be a great addition to the corporation! How're you all doing?

Same old, same old.

[Talow]

Lets all do the time loop again. what do you mean it's just me? oh.

[Gespenst]

And this is why clerks can be a problem. that was ultimately manageable, the bees aren't all that threatening one they can't get any more numbers, just kill them off room by room until nothing's left. but as a reminder: the clerk rights squad exists. some of them are ALEPH. none of them would still be in their units after that many deaths.

[TeeQueue]

Synchronizing Memory Repository . . .

Day 17: Gameplay Again

Music: neutral 2


No changes. The issue was with our execution, not our planning.





Let's all do our best today!



Hey, since the day's starting with Mizu working the new guy, I'm gonna go call Bishop.

Oh? I can call him-I'm taking over as captain, after all.

Would you? Let him know to review the handbook for type-B emergency protocols. We got a feedback about him not following policy yesterday.

We did?! I must have missed it-

No biggie, I already filed it.



I hope it's soon… I wouldn't mind a pay raise.

Hold on-getting a call. Hello?

Hi, Bishop? Medea, from the Training team.

Yeah, I've seen you around. What's up?

We received feedback about your team yesterday. You didn't respond to a type-B emergency with the right protocol. Could you give the rules a once-over today, when you get the chance?

Type-B..? Oh, that. The bees died in the same corridor they spawned in, there wasn't any reason to evacuate the newbies.

Still, try to keep the policy in mind, okay?

Right, got it.



You're a cute li'l footguy with legs for days~ Gonna get your information and learn allayour ways~

That never stops being creepy.

X, will you be sending Zeta21 to the Queen Bee again?

Huh? Oh, yeah. No reason not to.



Wow… You really don't move, do you? I expected more out of a WAW.



All done working with Knight of Despair. Boksi, she's all yours.

Of course. I'm sure she'll be able to properly appreciate a member of the upper-crust coming to visit.

Hey, asshole. If you're so 'upper-crust,' why the hell are you here working a job the same as any of us?

I'd explain it, but someone at your level simply wouldn't be able to understand. You reek of the backstreets.

I'm gonna 'reek' all over your stupid face, pompous-

Tenebrais, calm down… It doesn't matter what some guy says.

Rrrgh… Fine. You're on thin ice.

Oh… I'm shaking. Thank you, Credentia, for showing the girl some sense.



Hey, boss, Queen Bee work didn't go great. Probably gonna' have spores.

Manager…

_{Dammit, Zeta..!} I'm on it.



Got eyes on three clerks. Mr.Black, Mizu, Mr.Blond, get ready to intercept. Start in the elevator, we can work back to the main room after.

Sir!

Okie-dokie!



Hey! Some of this blood is mine!

If you're taking too many hits, back off to the regenerator and hold for more orders.



It was no trouble! We were able to clear the elevator! HAHAHAHA!

Good job, team. Return to the main room.



Hah. Stupid bees. Not so tough now, are you?



STILL TOUGH! THEY'RE STILL TOUGH!

What the- again?!

It appears our initial response was slightly too slow. The bees escaped the elevator we planned to use to quarantine them.

And just like that, they're all going to die… again.

Not this time! Mr.Black, Mr.Blond, get back in there!



No problem, boss!



Once again a single bee escaped due to a miscalculation on my part. Unlike last time, this time around I pause and very carefully take stock of the entire situation. There's nothing near Central this time, and the only bees around are near the bottom. Just to be sure, I also unpause, wait a second, and pause again-sometimes Abnormalities can be stuck in door transitions, and I didn't want to lose another day to missing something. Luckily, it's just the bees down there in lower Information.



Training team?

Yes sir?

End them.

Yes sir!



You're not going any further!

Hey, they're all ignoring us to go for Boksi!

Oh no, they can smell my pedigree!



Phew. Splendid work, everyone. I wonder why they went after me..?

Maybe that backstreets stench counts as bug repellant.

Ah, you might just be right..! Do you bottle it?

This guy…

Tenebrais, just breathe. In, out.



One more full scan… nothing. We've cleared out all the bees!

Does that mean I can go back to sleep?

I'd rather you stayed awake today, actualaaand he's offline.



Now that that's done, back to work on getting all of Blue Star's information figured out. When we retry it resets everything we've done so far that day-so we had to re-unlock its name.



Amber Dawn.



I'll take these over those damn bees any day.

Same, sir.



Talow's busy… Credentia! Elevator!



Can you aim a little lower? I've got a kink in my shoulder from the fighting earlier… Ah, that's it! Good birdie.





Amber Done.



Don't you have a body? Or… wait, are you a hologram? We've never talked outside of the monitor, so I never really was clear on that.

I have a body, the same as the Sephirot. The main difference is that I am significantly more advanced than any of them.

_{You all look the same to me…}

Did you say something, X?

Yeah. We need to get back to work on figuring out Blue Star.

...Of course, sir.



I want to work with the Knight.

Um… what?

I want to work with Knight of Despair. If that posh idiot can do it, I can do it too.

Your suit is weak to White damage… and TETH level. Um… this is dangerous!

Don't care. Doing it.

Um..!

For some reason I decide to have Tenebrais start working with KoD, alternating between her and Boksi. This definitely won't end badly.



All departments, we're reading a Crimson Noon for the next meltdown. Beware of clowns.

I send Mr.Blond to deal with You Must Be Happy, and promptly forget to stop running it until I happen to pause later. This is also probably fine.



Well hey there, Talow. What're you doing here?

You're a newbie working with a powerful White-damage abnormality. You already know what I'm doing here.

It's at this point that I try to set up another work with Queen Bee and notice Mr.Blond has only 20 HP.



Yeah… We need to fix that. I'm not sure if having a stat penalty of over 200 points will kill an agent the same way as having a buff will, but even if it wouldn't we need to buff him up to survive a possible Queen Bee pollen again.



Here's hoping this goes better than the last time…



It does. Since Mr.Blond is now able to work Blue Star successfully, I toss him into the rotation as well. Since his base stats are only level 3, he'll gain stats like they're level 3 despite the bonus. This is actually hilariously abusable and I'll have to keep it in mind for later.



My my, you're trying to draw me in aren't you? Too bad! It seems I'm simply too observant to fall for that! You won't be getting a leg up on me, HAHAHAHAHAHA!



Work proceeds without issue, hindered by me being unwilling to work with Blue Star once it's hit -12%.



Oh hey, I found the Noon. Let's watch it kill a few clerks.

Manager!

I'm kidding, geez. Talow's already on his way.



Go with the flow of the body…



And the mind!

Talow does several of the multi-stab attacks in a row, basically shredding the Noon.



Standard procedure when the Noon is dead, pause and zoom out to find all the Dawns to have them taken care of.



Pictured: The reason Crimson becomes the most dangerous Dawn type later on. No matter how pathetic they are, if they release an ALEPH it can absolutely mess us up.



They do not release an ALEPH to absolutely mess us up.



Again, huh...



Birdie, have you ever thought about becoming a masseuse? This is actually really nice.



Slow day, huh? I've only had to work with Rudolta once.

Slow for us. Zeta21's been working with that bee all day, and Twee there's been working Instinct with Laetitia so much her hat's fallen off.

No it ha--OH GOSH! My hat! Where'd it go?! I have to go find it!

Have fun, kiddo.

A graphical glitch here: Twee's hat has just vanished. This just happens sometimes… like I've said before, the coding of this game is a little off in places.



Another normal on Queen Bee fires off 3 more infections into the Safety team, but it hits the agents so everything is fine. Phew!



Huh. That does burn!

Isn't it incredible? Haha!

It is!

_{I'm surrounded by idiots…}

The damage after the pollen is about half of their health now. Not bad.



Again?! I'll send someone to-

Manager, it's not Punishing Bird this time!

Mission failed. Maybe next time I shouldn't throw an agent at a higher level Abnormality with a damage type they're weak to.



_{Stupid goddamn knight doesn't know the first damn thing about what she's talking about!}

Oh my god..! Who's done this to you, Miss Tenebrais?! Who shall I slay as pennance?!

...Angela, remind me to send a memo about agent fan clubs. This seems to be getting a bit out of hand.



Shut the hell up and get out of my way! _{Where is that posh bastard I'm gonna take this anger out on his stupid face!}

...Of course, X.



Talow?! Out of my way!

Tenebrais, your mental corruption's too high. I have to knock some sense back into you.

I'm fine! You don't even know what happened!



Alright then, what happened this time?

I was working with that damned knight, and while we're talking she just up and says, out of nowhere, "Where's Boksi? I'd prefer if he were here." That useless, pretentious, newbie!

Well, obviously.



What do you mean, 'obviously?!'

Knight of Despair is an Abnormality made of despair from failing to protect others. Her entire existence is protecting the weak. So if she wanted Boksi around…

...Oh my god.



I knew I was better than that mossheaded moron.

There ya' go. Let's get back to it.

_{That. Was. Awesome!!!!}



Hey, Tenebrais. You all done with your little tantrum?

Yyyyyep.

Great. I just wanted to show you this new gift. The Knight of Despair saw fit to grant me a portion of her power, because of my obviously superior upbringing.

Y'know what, Boksi? That's good for you. I'm sure you'll need all the help you can get around here.

I'm so glad the two of you are finally starting to get along! But… you did go over the corruption limits. You know what that means, right?

No..?



...I hate this job.



Meanwhile, we've finally (at Meltdown level 6!) managed to unlock all of Blue Star's information, which will allow us to start towards getting its gear. The suit costs 150 PE boxes to buy, and the weapon is another 222 on top of that. As a reminder, we've already had to spend 142 to get this far. ALEPH stuff is hard to buy, but it's worth the price. Just look at those numbers!



Scarecrow's out, Manager!

Training team's already on it.

You poor thing. We'll put you back to sleep soon.



...This is getting a little bit out of control.

The more cells we have, the broader the effects of the meltdowns will reach.

Ugh. At least this place can't get much bigger.

Zeta21's HP were a bit too low to work with Queen Bee, so to be safe I threw Medea over at her when setting up all the works.



In other news, I found a new way to make my life difficult. This is now a completely luck-based tool.

Every time, this machine is so silly…



There's no way I'd ever be unhappy!

Phew. That's one crisis averted.

Manager…

Tell Hod I'll get to Punishing Bird in a minute.

It's not that, Manager.

Then what is it?



1.76 MHz is about to suffer a critical meltdown.

Great. Wonderful. Good to know we're back in familiar territory.



Punishing Bird can wait. Malkuth, get Bishop on the radio.

Yes, Manager! He should be able to handle it without issue.



There's a whole room full of people. Why is it going after me?

I told it you needed a good back massage..?

Credentia…

You don't like it?



Meanwhile we've finally gotten our hands on Blue Star's E.G.O Suit, which will be incredibly helpful in the coming days.

Shall we continue until we get the weapon, X?

No… I don't think so. Today's been long enough.

Yes, sir.



zzz...

Oh, it's time to quit already? Cool!

He's just snoring. How could you tell?

He rolled in front of the door to the Enkephalin cabinet.

Aha! He's protecting it, I see.



Oh hey, Tenebrais, where were you?.

Is that Knight of Despair's gift?

Close enough. I grabbed a bottle of tears while we were doing Attachment work before and used an old Backstreets trick to tattoo this thing on my face with 'em.

That sounds incredibly dangerous..!

Probably. Don't care.

That's the coolest thing I have ever heard.

Hey guys, I'm gonna be back in a few.



Hey boss? While we're boxing things up… was it really necessary to evac during that thing with the bees earlier?

Bishop pointed out that the policy for type-B emergencies had been updated, so it's our job to follow it perfectly! I'm really proud of how diligently he always goes through the codes to track this stuff down bee-fore there's a problem!

<sub>You actually read all this stuff?

No, but if I told her someone filed a complaint, she'd blow a fuse...

Good point.</sub>

Ah… how much longer until Reunion?



_{So everyone made it out okay. Great. Just gotta get up and do it again tomorrow.}



Alright, pack it in everyone! Time to call it a day.

There's a lot of 100s starting to crop up across the facility. We'll probably see our first couple maxed out agents tomorrow.

Music: never frozen bottom flows


T-09-97: Those betrayed hearts sank into the depths, slowly forgotten in the ever-lengthening corridors of time.
T-09-85: Now everything will be just fine.
T-09-78: The final chapter ends with the phrase: "Born again."

We've talked about two of these before, so I'll summarize again: -85 is a trap option, and -78 is situational and can blow people up. That leaves -97, which is a highly situational tool that can permanently destroy your E.G.O weapons if it feels like it. This sounds bad, but it might theoretically come in handy at one point about 20 days from now.



We take that one, of course. It says a lot about Tool abnormalities that 'Might maybe come in handy 20 days down the line' is a convincing selling point.

Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: Another message from B.

New Guidelines

Blue Star

New Gear


Requirements: Level 5, Prudence 5, Temperance 5

New Story

Blue Star

[TeeQueue]

Mechanics Talk 14: Repositories, Retries, and Resets

Today, we're going to be talking about how each of the reset options work! Most of this stuff is pretty easy to figure out, but it's important to keep the specifics in mind to make sure we don't accidentally lose something when we use one of these methods. Let's get to it.



The first option is Retry, which we've just recently seen in action. The way it works is simple: It rewinds everything to the state it was in just before we press the 'Begin Management' button to start the day. It saves any changes that were made in the preparation screen, and gives back both lost agents and equipment, but we lose any work we've made on any abnormality the same day, and any research we've done, gifts we've gotten, or equipment we've made is reset as well. This is the best option if something goes wrong and we want to redo it to keep our stuff-making it by far the most common rewind.

The second option, Rewind to the Memory Repository, returns us to the last Memory Repository made. These are made at the start of days 1, 6, 11, 16, etc. Returning to one will give us back all the agents we had at that time, in the exact state that they were in at that time. This means that any equipment or placement shuffles, training done, or gifts gained after the memory repository roll back to what they were. If the gear of an agent is lost (generally by them dying) and is not repurchased before a rewind, that agent is returned to the default E.G.O weapon/suit. The Repository rewind keeps all of our research and all of our equipment as of the exact moment we hit rewind-we can (and MUCH later, will) get a new abnormality, fully research it and buy its gear, and then immediately wind time back to the Repository to grab something different.

Because of the Memory Repository, the abnormality we pick going into days 16, 21, etc is very important-we're effectively stuck with them forever unless we use our next option…



The Day 1 Reset. Unlike the previous two options, this can only be done from the title screen. By selecting First Day, we keep all of our equipment, research, and abnormality information, but rewind back to the first day. This starts us off with One Sin and Hundreds of Good Deeds (usually-but let's not talk about that yet. ), and lets us begin again from the start. This is a good option if we ever find ourselves in a position where we are unable to continue forward-indeed, it's our only way out of the various death spirals that can kill newer players.

But what if we wanted to reset even harder? Could this be done?

Yes!



By running our mouse over the Lobotomy Corporation logo, we can see that it changes color. What happens if we click on it?



I'm pretty sure the person who's supposed to be speaking here is Angela. Anyways, this is the full reset option-it deletes all of the save data and starts over from the beginning. Presumably, it also makes Angela frown at us.

Needless to say, we will not be using this.

Those are our reset options. Knowing the differences between Retry and Memory Repository is the most important piece of information to take away from all of this, but having information on all of our options on hand is never a bad things.

[Quackles]

...even your precious memories with me.

So, when do we get to see Just Angela?

[TeeQueue]

DeviantArtist deepsea-metro has you taken care of in the link.

[TeeQueue]

Synchronizing Memory Repository . . .

Day 18: Story

Music: Town - Alone in a Crowd


Well, it is something you must learn. ...I understand that the truth hurts. It’s—it’s hard for me as well… It feels like building up a sandcastle for years, only to kick it over once it’s done.



But I want to make things right, no matter the cost.

Music: None. *The sound of static plays.*




*The static stops.*

In summary: B is cut off just before revealing the final truth to us, and is also probably dead now.



Do it.

Cool. Night.

Yeah.

...huh.

X, are you doing well? You did not even attempt to complain when Netzach showed his intention to sleep through the working day.

Fine. I'm fine. Just going to think about some stuff.

...Very well, X.

<sub>Bishop, we need to talk ASAP. My office in ten.

Roger, boss.</sub>

Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: A new abnormality, brought to you by EA games. EA: We apply microtransactions to everything!








MANAGER!!!

GAH! Wha-what?!

I have a demand! I demand a new title!

What-but-you can't just-why not use the mirror?

Because I don't wanna forget about a single cutie I've met!

Okay then… so, why do you need a new title?

Because 'Optimistic Architect' just doesn't suit me! I'm not an optimist, I'm a realist!

You think all the new abnormalities are "cuties."

Yeah! Real cuties!

…

And I'm not an architect! I don't build things! Ever!

That's… more a metaphor than anything else. It means your insights are what our management plans are based on, so the fact that you always go in first-

Too flowery! Not cute at all! It's got to go.

Uh… huh. So what am I supposed to change it to?

Something more fitting! I was thinking something like... 'Cutie Chaser' Mizu! 'Total Badass' Mizu! 'Super Special Awesomesauce' Mizu! Am I inspiring anything? You're inspired now, right?

...you could say that.

Ooh! How about, 'Amazing Cutie Fan' Mizu? Or 'Well Gazer' Mizu? …'Dark Lord Tyrant' Mizu? Oh! Or maybe even-

How many of these do you have?!

I have a whole list!

I'll tell you what. Forward it to your boss. I'll tell him that he gets to decide if you get a new title.

Okie-dokie! Thanks, Mister Manager!

_{Your problem now, Netzach...}

Ooh-what about 'Super Lovely' Mizu..?

[TeeQueue]

Synchronizing Memory Repository . . .

Day 18: Gameplay

Music: neutral 4


With a glut of LOB (35!) burning a hole in my pocket, I boost all of our agents' level 2 stats to level 3. Medea gets the shiny new ALEPH suit for now, and I do some minor equipment shuffling.





It doesn't matter… just do whatever.



Orders from the top, everyone! Sephiroth, SeyserKoze, you're just hitting the mirror today. From there, we'll squeeze some work in if we have time-but if not we'll have some more training programs after work.

Training programs? Again? Man… Why not just inject the power right into my veins? We can do that, right?

Ah yes… Mako infusions were how I gained much of my own power. Mother's cells allowed me to survive them without losing myself in the stream of souls that lies within all things.

On second thought, training classes are fine.

Bishop, I was told you're exempt from normal duties today? Whatever it is, it sounds important!

---



-so the call was cut off, just like that.

It definitely sounds like someone wanted to stop 'B' from saying that third truth. He's probably never speaking again, to be honest.

That's what I figured. So, today, can you look into something? I want to find out who this B guy really was, confirm who killed him, everything. There should be a corpse or something to go off of... Any information you can find, really.

Alright. I'll give the CCTV footage a thorough once-over, and check around in the places the cameras can't reach. That program seemed to be coming from inside the building, so there's only so many places to hide a body.

Thanks. I'll make sure Malkuth doesn't go breathing down your neck in exchange, okay? Just try to be around for the Noon.

Of course. Fighting the ordeals keeps my skills sharp.

---

It is, ma'am. I'll be sure to perform my duties perfectly, like always.

I wouldn't expect anything less!



Netzyyyy! Boss boss boss boss! Hey! Boss! Netzy! Hey!

_{So loud…} What is it?

Did you get my list of titles? I wanna know what my new title is going to be! Is it 'Amazing Dancer' Mizu? That'd be great! Or 'Alpha Omega' Mizu would be cool too.

You're going to stay on this until I give you something, aren't you?

Sure am! Strike while the iron's hot! And cold! And lukewarm! And… just keep striking, actually! Eventually you'll have a breakthrough!

...Okay. Then you're just Mizu.

Just Mizu?

Just Mizu. Goodnight.



...Ohmigosh I love it. Hey Twee! Twee! Check out my new title!



Oh, that's really neat! I was just taking a look at the new tool abnormality we got today.



The container was signed… "From EA, with love."

EA? What's an EA?

HAHAHA! It means Extraction Administrator!

Extraction…? Sounds interesting. Shame that it's just a tool...

Our newest tool requires us to have PE boxes in order to function, so we'll come back to it in just a moment.



It's time. Zeta21, you're going to be working in Safety again. D.A.D., you're assigned to test the new tool today. Tylana, stay open in case of a meltdown.

Roger that, boss. Good luck, Zeta.

Safety again..? I maxed out Fortitude with the Bee yesterday.

Who said you were going to be working with Queen Bee?



I don't know what I expected.

With some energy in the bank, it's time to test our new Abnormality.



When we activate our new toy, we lose 2 energy towards our daily goal-this number changes based on a few factors, but it's always a... small tradeoff, if you will. D.A.D. tosses a sphere into the strange contraption.



Prayer ensues, as the tool wiggles around menacingly.



This is what we want to see: the tool turns gold and D.A.D. does a happy little dance!



It gives them a glowing golden orb in return.



And just like that, D.A.D.'s damage is buffed from 5-6 to 6-7.



We do it again, boosting the damage to 6-8, and get a name. Our new tool is called Old Faith and Promise. It seems pretty nice so far, allowing us to pay in order to gain a direct advantage over our enemies. We send D.A.D. in a third time.



My gun…!

This time it turns black, and eats our weapon-returning D.A.D. to the basic riot club. The way Old Faith works is simple enough: Each successive roll with it increases the power of our E.G.O weapon, but it also raises the chance of it being consumed. If you're familiar with any games which have a pay-to-win upgrade system that randomly destroys your equipment so you have to shell out more money, it's that.

Sephiroth isn't likely to see any action, and we need to work this thing another 4 times. Malkuth, send him on down to give this thing a try.





Ma'am.

Hey there!

The blue sparkles here are the Sound of a Star suit's effect: It periodically heals everyone in the room, but only for SP. In general, green sparkles mean HP healing and blue sparkles are for SP healing.



Mother… have I been forsaken..?

Sephiroth also gets through three works before his weapon is destroyed, so we only need one more to unlock all of its data. I decide to send Mizu, since she's close.



To expected results. She's got a slight buff for the rest of the day, and we're finished with Old Faith and Promise.



Well, that's neat. Time to never use it again.

An efficient and decisive decision as always, X. Will we be ending things early, then?

We need to get 222 boxes from Blue Star to grab that weapon… so we'll probably end a little early. Not yet, though.

Very well, sir. I shall leave things in your care.



With our first meltdown, we see something strange: Despite us being slated to get 2 meltdowns, only 1 actually spawned. This is also because of Old Faith and Promise. It's part of a very exclusive club of abnormalities which I like to call 'meltdown eaters.' Whenever meltdowns are generated, they're randomly placed on the abnormalities in the facility. Whenever a meltdown eater is selected to be hit by a meltdown, the meltdown is instantly considered cleared and does not spawn. In effect, we'll sometimes randomly have 1 less meltdown than we otherwise would.

EDIT: I have been informed by multiple people that Old Faith is not a meltdown eater, and it melts down just fine the same as anything else. They do exist, but Old Faith was not allowed into this highly exclusive abnormality club because it's not cool enough. What apparently happened here was Tenebrais's work with Laetitia triggered a meltdown on Blue Star, and since Twee was going there anyways she cleared it after only a handful of frames and I just didn't notice at all. Great thanks to the thread for mentioning this, I was about to be really surprised in the next few days.



My goodness, three smiles at once? How terrific!

I get to work on maxing out Mr.Black's Fortitude, and meanwhile have Twee power up on YMBH so that she can work with Blue Star. After this work is over, I pause for a moment to track exactly how much Fortitude Mr.Black gained, since he's close enough to only need 1-3 more works. I figure that he only needs one more to finish maxing it.



I've been taking notes on how Mizu works with new abnormalities-I think I'll be able to properly clean the room now that my perceptiveness has been tweaked! Just you watch!



Crimson Dawn.



We've got this handled, sir.

Maybe so, but the timer's cutting it a little close. I'll just help finish things off.



Crimson done.



Mr.Blond gets a normal while training with the Queen Bee, but she decides not to shoot spores. After the last two days? I'll take it.



Manager, I heard the warning. Has it started?



You're just in time. It's a green.



Those vibrations… I think it's just outside the door.

Both of you get out of here, I'll take care of it!

Very well.



I thought I smelled a cutie! Leave this one to me~



I don't like these ones! They don't know how to smile, and they're so terribly hard!

At least you have that fancy WAW suit! That chainsaw still goes through my gear like a chainsaw through butter!

_{As the two dead clerks lying there would show, neither of you has any right to complain.}



Glad you could make it, Talow. I've got things under control, though.

How'd you know it was me from behind the robot?

There's only one agent here with the Generous Pillar title.

Very perceptive. Let's get this thing taken down.

You don't have to help out in Training?

Nah. Medea took Knight of Despair's boon today and insisted on field-testing the new E.G.O suit alone.



If you told me a week ago that we'd be able to fight a Green Noon in hand-to-hand combat without trouble, I'd have called you crazy.



How is it? Any scratches?

None, ma'am. The suit looks immaculate.

There you have it, Hod. I had no idea ALEPH gear was this powerful... And you said there was a weapon, too?

Um… that's right! It's being extracted later today. Now, if you'll let me check on your vitals…



Holy-

That's amazing!

That's right-Medea took out a Green Noon in melee combat by herself, and only took 8 damage. Between the suit's 0.4x multiplier vs Red damage, the ALEPH suit vs HE weapon's 0.7x multiplier, and the Knight's 0.5x multiplier, Medea had a total modifier of 0.14x versus the Green Noon's attack. All resistance calculations in this game are multiplicative, which means that just a little stacking makes some crazy things happen.



Hey, just Mizu. Can you finish up? That chainsaw is really loud.

Okie-dokie, boss!



All done!

Phew. Got that out of the way early. Only thing left to do is go for the Blue Star's weapon, which means we need…







Mmmh… I needed that. There's been nothing to do all day.

...Huh. Did I forget about Training?

Um… I've been having Tenebrais train her Fortitude with Laetitia, and Boksi wound up with a Prudence of 2 after mirror, so I sent him to-

-The Scarecrow.

Thank you, Hod. Well done.

You're very welcome, sir!

Anyways, I was checking on how many more boxes I need to hit 222…





...seriously?

Your eyes are not deceiving you, Manager. Outside of the perception filter, of course, none of the information on screen have been modified or played with in any way. It is absolutely vital to-

Yeah, yeah, yeah, got it. Twee, handle it.



This time let's conduct some experiments on how strong the pull of that heart is, shall we?

---



Hey. Bird. I know you haven't had anyone come see you all day, but we can't really afford you breaking out this close to quitting time, so I'm here to deal with you.



Yeah, I guess I shouldn't have run off and tried to murder mosshead, but let's be fair-he kind of sucks.



Ugh, alright, fine. The point is, I'm not going to kill him-I'm going to let him snap under the pressure, and then I'm going to beat him back to sense so hard his stupid ancestors'll feel it for generations. So no more coming after me, okay?



My heart's in exactly the right place, you abnormal avian asshat-inside my chest. My job is making sure things like you don't remove it from there.



Don't follow? Then let me put it like this: I know how to dodge now. If you come after me again you will get a beating you'll never forget, and that little mouth you're hiding in there won't save you.



Oh screw off, birdbrain!



Say, Tylana… have you considered moving to a different department?

Not really, why do you ask?

I feel like you're hitting your ceiling in this department. You'd do great somewhere else. You've got good instincts, kiddo, and I'm sure you could be a department captain somewhere else.

You really think so?

I know so. The only reason you're not the head around here is you have to compete with me, after all. :mmmhmm:

Thanks. I'll... think about it.

Zeta21, you've got some real talent, too. Ever thought about what you want to make of yourself?

Plenty of times. I always come back to sipping on a cold drink, watching everyone else do all the work.

Heh. Well, it's nice to have a goal in mind, too.



Why, Talow, it seems you've finally gotten a second gift!

Mm? Huh, so I did. The Knight of Despair must've snuck this on me.

I didn't think you liked E.G.O Gifts.

I don't, but she and I see eye to eye on a couple of things, I guess.



Manager, the E.G.O weapon has been extracted successfully.

Great! Let's give everyone the rest of the day off. We'll test drive our new toy tomorrow.

I think I know who'd be ideal to test it, Manager.

Forward it to me, I'll consider it overnight.



Another one done by the numbers.

More across the board stat-ups, as our agents are getting close to being maxed out. We've also gotten our first two fully maxed agents.



Congratulations to Mr.Black and Zeta21 for reaching the pinnacle of agentdom.

---

Bishop, have you found anything yet?

Not yet. Thanks for getting us out of here early, it makes it a lot easier for me to look around without a problem.

I thought you might like it. We'll talk tomorrow, alright?

Sounds good, Manager.



With a full load of abnormalities, we don't get to pick anything new until the end of day 20, so -44 won't be able to keep stalking us for a little while longer.

Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: Malkuth shows up in an actual cutscene again!

New Gear


Requirements: Level 5, Prudence 5, Temperance 5
*Not affected by Attack Speed

New Story

Old Faith and Promise

[TeeQueue]

Abnormality Roundup 4

Safety's all wrapped up, so it's time for the usual checkup. Honestly, things are going really well, and as soon as I find some way to mitigate the Queen Bee's brand of rudeness (which should come on day 23) we'll have a very strong facility put together. This is about the point where I like to have an overall plan for how to polish my agents, and between Scarecrow/Rudolta, Laetitia, Queen Bee, and Blue Star we have a useful trainer for every type of work. The most important thing to keep in mind now is to keep agents cycling through the various trainings. One mistake that every new player makes is favoriting an 'A-team' of agents with maxed out stats, and allowing them to do all of the work. This makes the rest of the facility stagnate, and winds up forcing the player into situations where most of their employees are little better than fancy Clerks. More numbers are always better, so we will be making the numbers go up. I wouldn't mind an Instinct trainer that was less… Queen Bee, but there's nothing that I really want for at the moment either so I'll just say "Birdzodia pieces, please!"

You Must Be Happy


One of the universal rules of tool abnormalities is that I don't really pay much attention to tool abnormalities. They're finicky, rude, and more often than not the penalty for using them wrong is 'your agent dies.' However, it turns out YMBH is really useful if you can work around its particular quirks. In addition to trivializing a mission later on down the line, it can help our agents cheat their way into working stat requirements by either cutting off unneeded stat points with a NO, or adding on additional points with a YES, like we've been doing to work Blue Star. Solid tool over all, especially since it's easy to work with as long as you remember to just leave immediately.


Queen Bee



Ahh, Queen Bee. Nobody really likes Queen Bee, because she'll turn every Clerk (and Sephiroth) in the entire facility into a worker bee given half the chance. This makes Clerk's Rights Abnormalities break out, and it can cause a lot of problems for your facility-particularly in a place that overlaps like Safety does with Information and Control. We've got her in the worst place in the entire facility, and yet we're still using her. Why? Because she's an incredibly efficient Instinct trainer. Let's say we use a 50 Temperance agent with 50 HP and 0.8 HE armor vs Red on her. That'll give us a base success rate of 62% after observation bonus. That'll give us 13-14 of her 22 boxes on average. The remaining 8-9 boxes will deal an average of 4 damage each, so we'll take 32-36 damage, hitting that 1.0x damage multiplier. That means that with our level 3 Fortitude each box is worth 0.75 points of Fortitude, and we gained either 13 or 14-which works out to an average result giving us right around 9-10 Fortitude. In one work, that's amazing-and absolutely worth the risk of keeping her around.

Plus she has a really cool hat.


Blue Star



Blue Star is the friendliest, easiest ALEPH we could possibly start with. So long as we keep its rules in mind, we won't lose anyone to it outside of something truly crazy happening-its QC of 2 protects it to some extent from Crimson Dawns, and we want meltdowns on it for the overload-free works anyways. If it escapes it'll definitely kill a substantial portion of our employees, but that's just ALEPHs in a nutshell: "don't screw up or you'll probably die." It's an excellent finishing abnormality for Prudence, only needing 1-2 works to max out any agent that's at level 5 (and since we have YMBH, we can cheat and make it work for agents with lower levels of Prudence as well). In addition to that, its requirement of decent to high Temperance to avoid working on it too long makes it a very good Repression trainer as well-40% isn't the best, but it's far from terrible, especially given an ALEPH abnormality's number of boxes and risk multiplier. It's stable across the board, as well, meaning that a hypothetical 5/5/3 Pru/Tem/Jus agent would be able to quickly farm its way up the chain.

That's right: we finally have a decent Justice trainer, you guys.

Its gear is a little weak for ALEPH gear, but that translates to 'It's only better than everything else in the game by a substantial amount,' and both Blue Star and its weapon can cheese a few missions later in the game if we get the right combination of supporting abnormalities. I'll be keeping an eye out. Overall Blue Star is a super-great first ALEPH, and I'm glad to pick it up.


Old Faith and Promise



The above chart shows the odds for Old Faith succeeding at each level of boost. One thing to note: Trying for more than 4 boosts is a trap! We'll probably break our weapon, it takes a lot more energy than the others, and even if it works the weapon gains nothing. Since its destruction saves even through a Retry, any time we use this thing we're playing for keeps-meaning we're not putting any ALEPH toys through it. Additionally, the boosts are too small to make up the gap on lower level weapons.

As for the overall odds: One boost is 85%, two boosts is ~64%, 3 is ~35%, and landing that fourth boost takes us to a 14.025% overall chance. It's just not worth it for the minimal boost to our damage output. Generally speaking, any time we might want to use this, we could just pile another agent onto the deathball and get more bang for our buck. Unless we have to, we won't be using this. Unfortunately, due to how meltdowns work we may have to-because it's not immune to meltdowns.

[Quackles]

The LobCorp wiki suggests "Old Faith and Promise" might be inspired by an event in a Korean mobile game, where there was a similar 'breaking' weapon enchantment system. Normally, you could obtain tickets that would keep a weapon from breaking if the enchantment failed, but the weapon's boost would be reset to 0 if that happened.

The "Kiri's Promise" event let you buy tickets where, if the enchantment failed, the weapon would be completely and totally unaffected, retaining its previous enchantment level. I'm told they cost $40 a shot!

People complained.