Enigma

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Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?

Enigma is a mutation that grants +2 Cool and trades it for heavy penalties to received support.

Location

Enigma is in the Heaven bar within Gangland.

Effects

This mutation grants:

    Passive: +2 to cool
    Passive: Immunity to diagnose
    Passive: Immunity to appraise
    Passive: Immunity to analyze
    Passive: Visual description is more vague.
    Passive: Age cannot be determined on @age or look.

Advantages

  • +2 cool. This increases stress resistance modestly, and is a useful bonus to weapon skill for Blades users.
  • Immunity to appraise. With sufficient appraise skill, players can get the gist of several characteristics of your build; these things are generally obvious anyway from one's weapon and armor choices, so this is usually useless.
  • Most mutations are hidden. An Enigma's mutation choices cannot be discerned by looking at them. This is almost useless, since context and weapon choice reveal most builds very quickly.
  • No age visibility. Other players cannot discern an Enigma's age normally, but age is rarely important, and the oldest players are revealed on a scoreboard anyway. This does also mean that Enigma mutants can purchase alcohol from age-conscious NPCs, but alcohol pumps are unrestricted, so this is also useless.
  • Cosmetic value. Some players appreciate the cosmetic aspect of Enigma, and like having their mutations hidden.

Disadvantages

  • Immunity to diagnose. Enigmas need to be confident in understanding their st readouts and knowing the symptoms of various afflictions so that they can seek the correct treatment, because no doctor will be able to diagnose them. This makes Enigma a very poor choice for newer players. The doctor in Slagtown's hospital also cannot heal Enigma mutants. This also makes precise drugging awkward.
  • Resistance to tac. An enigma mutant's health bar and current-action still renders on tac, but their status effect readout is blank. This makes it more difficult to get any triage in the heat of battle.
  • Resistance to Combat Medic Satchels. This is way less punishing on Samsara than on other shards, but using a combat medic's satchel on an Enigma mutant causes one to systematically apply every treatment in the satchel until one of them actually does anything. This is annoyingly slow, but usually fine when outside of combat.
  • Can't be analyzed. Enigma mutants cannot be cleansed of mentals by psychoanalysis; the only option is an Empath, and Empath mutants are rare. Fortunately, mentals are also very rare for non-vampires and non-freaks.
  • Noob trap. Enigma is notorious for creating players who take Enigma for the cosmetic aspect, but don't understand their st readout, and fill corpnet with confused complaint when they get hurt.
  • Radiation problems. It's impossible to know precisely how many rads an Enigma has until they start taking damage (20+). This can cause unexpected radmuts or cancer if left untreated.
  • Cool isn't considered a very good stat. Out of all the six stats, it's got the lowest utility. Enigma's cost is also very high for a mere +2 bonus, especially since cool can be buffed by +4 for cheap with bling.

Appearance

Your appearance when diagnosing or appraising essentially disappears, along with visible mutation effects disappearing from the looking and examining, but people still see your desc and @nudes.


Mutations
Racial Mutations AbominationChudHideous FreakVampireZombie
Focus Mutations CarrieChillerFuck MachineSalamanderScreechWrithing SmokeEmpath
Movement Mutations LeapfrogPhaserClairvoyance
FlightBlinkMedium
Soak Mutations High DensityFirewalkerRubberskinSnakeskinYeti Skin
LithodermisSolar SpongeSilicone SkinEelskinYeti Fur
Miscellaneous Mutations BillygoatBleederBloodhoundBrainslugBrute StrengthCamelfatEnigmaFibrocartilageHooliganHyperimmuneIron LiverJunkratMuleNimble FingersPlant WhispererStenchTwitchy NervesSuperclotXray VisionCat Ears
Ripperlikes CarcinocudgelHorrorspikeRipperTendrils
Joke Mutations Third Nipple
Defunct Mutations Jammer