Brainslug

I went down to the piercing parlor, said "please pierce my brain".They said I won't survive it, so it had to be prepaid.

Brainslug is a mutation that gives +3 Brains and +40% stun resistance in exchange for -2 Brawn and -1 Reflexes, and several other downsides. This is one of the most difficult to obtain mutations, on account of its high-security location. This mutation previously drained 1-5% of your money each heartbeat, however this has been removed in Samsara.

Location

Brainslug can be found underneath the Radome in Star Field. To enter, you must wear mormon undergarments (found in Birchwood) and possess no drugs or porn. You also must pass multiple high tier Voxguard locks, which can be difficult to pick through without 25~ hack and 25~ locksmith skill. More is better, and may be necessary depending on how lucky you are and how many electromag inductors you bring with you. If you cannot do this yourself, it may be wise to bring a friend who can.

1. Acquire a brainslug larva. It can be either found in a container behind a hidden exit in weezer sewers in 'chilly chamber' room or provided by a brainslug mutant, and put it in a container to avoid infection.
   • Infecting oneself before reaching the Radome site is completely unnecessary, and given the heavy debuffs that the larva imposes (which include spawning mentals, tripling hunger rate, and imposing -3 Brains), also unwise.
2. Go to the Radome in Star Field. Navigate to the first VoxGuard Platinum, and bypass it.
3. Search the side rooms of this area until you find a post-it note. Alternatively, you may skip this step if you wish to simply pick through the next door, or wait for an NPC to open it, but this may be slower.
4. Once the post-it is acquired, go all the way south in this area, and open the door with the combination on the note.
5. Go all the way south to the stairwell, then go two floors down to Level B3. Then, head north-west and locate the second VoxGuard Platinum. Bypass it.
6. This small area contains two tiles; the southern tile contains the brainslug mutation, but much like Vampire, it is not possible to mutate Brainslug without full progression of the larva.
7. Retrieve the larva from its container and hold it until it takes effect. Then, wait a few heartbeats until it reaches full progression. This is much faster than Vampire's infection; full infection takes about ten real-life minutes. Full progression will show a -3 debuff to Brains on @buffs.
8. Walk south, and mutate.

Effects

   larva: cough up a larva, with minor stress and HP cost, and use it for mind control
   Passive: +3 Brains
   Passive: +40% stun resistance
   Passive: -2 Brawn
   Passive: -1 Reflexes
   Passive: Periodic stress when horny.
   Passive: Allergic to bleach.
   Passive: Cannot attack other Brainslug mutants
   Passive: Slugnet notifications

Advantages

• +3 Brains. This is a huge upside that opens the door to extreme Brains min-maxing, whether used for dedicated brains-max builds or combined with other potent mutations, such as Vampire. As an example, One of can feasibly pick VoxGuard Diamonds or craft exosuits before they even drop N-tag.
• +40% stun resistance. This is one of only two sources of flat stun resist in the game, paired with Hooligan (which Brainslug can synergize with). This is a very powerful advantage in combat.
• Slug minions. Brainslug mutants can infect NPCs with brainslugs, and then have them as minions. Beware that this has been nerfed into oblivion on other shards, and is liable to be likewise nerfed if one does problematic shenanigans with it. Also, minion lifetime scales with their brains stat.
• Slugnet. You can chat with fellow slugs on it.

Disadvantages

• -2 Brawn. Even for builds that dump brawn, this is a significant hit to carry capacity, and builds that do intend to use brawn will have to build around this.
• -1 Reflexes. This is a hit to one of the most generally-important stats in the game. Fortunately, it's a pretty small negative, and depending on the build this is used with, it can end up being negligible.
• Periodic stress when horny. This can be confusing at first. There is no flavor message to inform one of that something is amiss; they simply gain stress for no apparent reason, in large doses. You can avoid this with a libido suppressor implant or mormon undergarments.
• Allergic to bleach. Brainslugs cannot pick up any container that has bleach in it. Drinking bleach at any time (from a container on the ground) will permanently remove this mutation. The larval stage of Brainslug can also be used this way. This is an issue for freakslugs, who are thus unable to use bleach for maintaining quadruple implants.
• Cannot attack other Brainslug mutants. In theory, this is almost always a non-problem, since brainslug is such a rare mutation.
• ATP. If Brainslug mutant lacks Hyperimmune, they will acquire ATP disease that causes them to randomly attack targets on their tile. Just like with Stench, game considers player's own mob as a viable target. While it will never porperly queue attacks against themselves, much less cause harm, they will take substantial stress if heavily infected with ATP, as the game thinks that they are trying to cause harm to "one of slug".
• Extra hunger. You're eating for two, now. This is usually negligible, but somewhat annoying.
• Slugnet. You cannot turn it off.

Slugnet

Slugnet is a special, mostly anonymous net available only to slugs, which is similar to most other nets: slug 'text' to chat in it and slug history to check channel's history (you cannot input a number) and slug who to see slug's whereabouts, including controlled NPCs.

The slugnet transmits special messages when certain events happen.

Event	Message
Player logs on	[slug] We feel stronger.
Player logs off	[slug] We feel weaker.
Player mutates brainslug	[slug] SLUG IS NOW MORE. A NEW HOST HAS BECOME OF SLUG. SLUG GROWS.
Mob with slug connection dies	[slug] Mob is no longer with us.
Mob gets slug connection	[slug] Mob is now among Us.
Mob loses slug connection	[slug] Mob's presence dissipates.

The last message plays for NPCs whose larva dies off, or for players who lose larva before mutating or, comically enough, mutate brainslug themselves.

Names of players are replaced with "We", and all pronouns and names (I, me) in slugnet are replaced with plural or slug pronouns (we, this slug, this one).

Mind control

larva cooldown
Due to larva prohibitive cooldown, if one of slug intends to make use of mind control, it is recommended for them to produce and store larvaes whenever command is off-coldown instead on-demand. They can be stored safely in containers, and do not rot or die.

Use larva command to cough up a larva - this costs some stress and HP, and has one IRL hour cooldown. Larvas can be stored in containers.

Larvas crawl automatically into mobs after left on the ground or picked up by them, but will die off after a while if find no suitable target and not stored in a container.

When successfully mind-controlled a target, a message is transmitted to slugnet ([slug] Mob is now among Us.), but if it fails or mob cannot be slugged, failure message is immediately sent ([slug] Mob's presence dissipates.)

• Success rate and length of the mind control scales with difference between brainslug's and target's brains.

• Mobs are controlled by talking on the net, and they have no ownership - they will listen to anyone's commands.

• To order a mob do something, say the command in slugnet as if you would do it yourself, but prefix it with their name with a comma. The commands can be targeted as usual.

   [slug] We say, "Wiki, get pistol"
   [slug] Wiki says, "I hear and obey."
   Wiki picks up an AirSoft target pistol off the pavement

   [slug] We say, "Wiki, smile."
   [slug] Wiki says, "Yes, great slug."
   Wiki smiles.

   [slug] We say, "Wiki, emote does a little dance."
   [slug] Wiki says, "Yes, great slug."
   Wiki does a little dance.

   [slug] We say, "Wiki, k this one" (k me)
   [slug] Wiki says, "I hear and obey."
   Wiki jams their switchblade deep into their own gut with a mad shriek.
   [slug] Wiki is no longer with us.

• Issuing commands to mobs costs negligible amounts of stress.

• Commands can be practically anything, ranging from simple emotes and or says, to item pick-ups and combat commands.
• Ordering slugged mob to look will transmit to you exactly what they are seeing.

Mind control limits
Certain mobs outright refuse mind control, no matter your Brains total - this mostly few very important NPCs, like 1Alvin, as well as most hostile mobs. Additionally, some commands cannot be ordered and are ignored.

Appearance

This mutation adds the following line to a character's description:

   An unnatural lump protrudes from the side of their head.