Pulse Demon
Assigned to:None
Pulse Demon
Superiors: N/A
Difficulty: Medium to Hard
Guides: No external guides
Access: Anywhere cables can be found
Duties: Feed off electricity, cause chaos, fry the captain
Departmental Head
Unknown
| Abductor • | Ash Walker • | Blob • | Changeling • | Contractor • | Construct • | Cultist • | Guardian • | Lavaland Elite • | Malfunctioning AI • | Morph • | Nuclear Agent • | Pulse Demon • | Revenant • | Revolutionary • | Shadow Demon • | Slaughter Demon • | Syndicate Researcher • | Terror Spider • | Traitor • | Vampire • | Wizard • | Xenomorph |
| Combat • | Death • | Hacking • | Traitor Items • | Agent Items • | Crafting • | High-Risk Items • | E-maggable objects • | C-maggable objects • | Martial Arts |
Pulse Demons are dangerous beings that live in the electrically charged atmosphere of brown dwarf stars. They source energy directly from electricity around them and will almost instantly die if that power source is taken away. Pulse demons can often be found sulking around engineering siphoning every last bit of power they have access to. It's highly advised to avoid stepping a pulse demon, as some of the energy it's using will be transferred to you, burning you to a crisp, being shock immune will prevent this.
Spawning in as Pulse Demon
A Pulse Demon can be chosen to spawn in as a random medium Midround event. You spawn in a random powered cable in the maintenance area. "Demon" needs to be enabled in Game Preferences in order to get a chance to play Pulse Demon.
Hijacking The Party
Your main goal is to gain area control, hacking an APC will let you take control of an area and interface with machinery like a station assigned AI would. You can click on a camera in that area while in an APC to jump to it, letting you see more of your controlled area. You can drain hacked APCs of their power, which is nice in a pinch.
You don't have to drain just APCs, you will also get most of your electricity from draining SMESes, and you should make this a top priority as a Pulse Demon. Draining SMESes will allow you to upgrade yourself, making hijacking APCs for area control much easier.
Some good upgrades to start with are:
- Increase Capacity - Especially if you start draining SMESes, you want this to steal more power at a time, and upgrade more abilities at once.
- Absorption - Very useful if you are mostly draining SMESes, this allows you to be even faster in obtaining more charge.
- Speed - Hijacking APCs is critical for area control, and the base time to hack an APC is 30 seconds which is both slow and risky. Be aware with how many upgrades you get however, you may run out of power and die.
The moment the crew is aware of your presence, you should consider investing in maximum HP, Efficiency and Endurance upgrades. If the crew is aware of you, they will come at you with tools such as Ion Rifles and EMPs. These are very dangerous and should be avoided at all cost. If you see someone with an Ion rifle, you can also try and EMP them so the charge of their gun will be drained. If the crew takes action via cutting cables and depowering the station, consider investing in Endurance, and find some undrained power sources, such as the Solar SMES and unhijacked APCs.
Two things will give you away; the light you emit and your sound. Pulse demons are loud, if someone hears a lot of shocking noises you're going to get called out. If someone sees a yellow ball of pain going under the floor, they'll call you out. Less charge means your light will be lower, but a smart player will still see you light up the room like the sun.
Abilities
Below is a list of abilities that a Pulse Demon can unlock and use. The cost of each ability is equal to the upgrade cost * (the level of the spell * 1.5).
These can be unlocked/upgraded by Alt-clicking their icons, with the amount of charge available.
| Ability | Upgrade Cost | Use Cost | Max level | Cooldown | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Demonic Whisper 
|
Automatically Unlocked | N/A | N/A | N/A | Whisper sweet nothings into the ears of the crew, or convince them to pursue an Amish lifestyle. |
Cycle Camera View 
|
Automatically Unlocked | N/A | N/A | N/A | Jump between cameras in your APC's area. Alt-Click to return to the area's APC. |
Toggle Draining 
|
Automatically Unlocked | N/A | N/A | N/A | Toggle whether you drain charge from power sources. |
Remote Drain 
|
5kW | 100W | 4 | 20 seconds | Remotely drains a power source. Costs 100kW to upgrade. |
Remote Hijack 
|
15kW | 10kW | N/A | 3 seconds | Remotely hijacks an APC. |
Cable Hop 
|
15kW | 5kW | 4 | 20 seconds | Jump to another cable in view. Costs 75kW to upgrade. |
Electromagnetic Tamper 
|
50kW | 20kW | 4 | 20 seconds | Unlocks hidden programming in machines. Must be inside a hijacked APC to use. Costs 200kW to upgrade. |
Electromagnetic Pulse 
|
50kW | 10 kW | 4 | 20 seconds | Creates an EMP where you click. Be careful not to use it on yourself! Costs 200kW to upgrade. |
Toggle Self-Sustaining 
|
100kW | N/A | 3 | 20 seconds | Toggle whether you can move out of cables or power sources. Costs 300kW to upgrade, allowing you to move faster outside of cables! |
Overload Machine 
|
300kW | 50kW | 4 | 20 seconds | Overloads a machine, causing it to explode! |
Upgrades
These upgrades are purchased through a radial menu, a KW is worth 1000 units of power each
| Upgrade | Initial Cost | Cost multiplier | Upper limit | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Speed 
|
16.66 KWs | (100 / Your hijack time) * 20 KWs | Less than a second | Decreases the amount of time required to hijack an APC by 33%, cannot go lower than 1 second. |
Absorption 
|
15 KWs | Your max drain rate * 15 | 500KW drain | Increases the amount of charge drained from a power source per cycle by 33%. |
Strength 
|
250 KWs | Your max health * 5 KWs | 200 Health | Increases the total amount of health you have by 33%. |
Recovery 
|
150 KWs | Your max health * 50 KWs | 100 Health Regen | Increases the amount of health regenerated when powered per cycle by 33%. |
Endurance 
|
400 KWs | 100 / your health loss rate * 20 KW | Less than 1 unit | Decreases the amount of health lost when unpowered per cycle by 33%. |
Efficiency 
|
5 KWs | 100 / your power cost per health unit regenerated * 50 KW | Less than 1 unit | Decreases the amount of power required to regenerate per cycle by 33%. |
Capacity 
|
1 KW | Your maximum current charge | Unlimited | Increases the total amount of charge you can have at once. Doubles each upgrade. |
Fighting Against the Electric Menace
Defeating a Pulse Demon is no easy feat and requires some quick thinking, as leaving them to their own devices will give them a chance to upgrade and ending up the station powerless. Thankfully, it’s obvious when one is around, as they let off a faint yellow glow under the floor and emit loud zapping noises.
Protection is key when hunting a Pulse Demon, as they have a quite nasty shock when you touch them, to the point they can husk you. To counter this, wear some insulated gloves, and avoid exposed floor tiles with cables.
A tactic you can consider is trapping the demon by snipping cables around it with wirecutters, as they require cables to travel. If they are exposed outside of a cable, they are significantly slower and start losing their charge, killing them off. However, if the demon is upgraded, it will be able to jump to another cable anyways, so try to this as early as you can.
No power is not the Pulse Demon’s only weakness, they are also weak to Electromagnetic Pulses (EMPs). Ion rifles are recommended for this, as they leave you enough range and precise shooting. They also work on covered floor tiles if you know where the demon is. However, be aware of any IPCs or people with cybernetics in vicinity, as one hit alone can incapacitate them.
When a Pulse Demon dies, it will drop a perpetual pacemaker. Upon consumption, the user will be granted shock immunity, a permanent glow, cell charge, and a limited version of the demon's shock.