Bionics
Bionics, also known as CBMs or Compact Bionic Modules, are cybernetic enhancements that can be added to the player, granting various passive and activated abilities. Along with mutations, they are one of two paths to transhumanism typically taken by late-game characters. Some offer powerful abilities such as teleportation and stopping time, many of which are unique in the game, and some are useless or even a liability when installed. Certain professions can also spawn with bionics. A Power Storage bionic and a bionic capable of charging the battery are necessary for the use of most bionics.
You can access the bionics menu via p, where you can see and manage all your installed bionics.
CBMs
CBMs are surgery kits that contain all the parts required to install a cybernetic implant, also called a bionic, in a human. Manufacturers' warranties insist on using an autodoc or having a fully qualified technician and medical doctor to assist in the installation in a proper medical facility. CBMs are rare to find among the general public, being mostly concentrated in scientific or military areas. All CBMs are made of steel and plastic, are 2.5 L, and do 8 bashing damage when wielded.
The most common places to find CBMs are science labs and microlabs. Other places to get them are military locations like bunkers and bases, death drops from zombie scientists, trading with Hub 01, and very rarely from electronics stores, doctor's offices, police stations, bank vaults, and many other places.
Aside from labs, the primary way to get bionics is by dissecting certain corpses. This takes a significant amount of time and requires a tool with fine cutting. Corpses will give varying numbers of bionics from various pools, depending on the monster, with Power Storage CBMs being most common. Your success probability when dissecting for bionics depends on your tool's fine cutting level, your dexterity, your First Aid skill, and to a lesser degree your Electronics skill. It's also decreased by damage to a corpse, so make sure not to pulp corpses you plan on dissecting. A failure gets you burnt out bionics, which are useless.
Corpses which yield bionics are:
- Broken cyborg
- Prototype cyborg
- Shocker zombie
- Skeletal shocker
- Zombie scientist
- Zombie technician
- Shocker brute
- Incandescent husk
- Zombie bio-operator
Preparing CBMs
CBMs you loot throughout the world are packaged and ready to install, but CBMs dissected out of corpses come filthy and deployed. An autodoc will not allow you to install it this way, even if you're ready to shove zombie gore in your chest cavity. There are four steps you'll have to remember in order to prepare a harvested CBM for installation.
- Wash it with a sponge, rag, washing kit, or dishwasher.
- Reset it by going to its item info from your inventory and selecting Mend. This takes 45 minutes and requires Electronics 2, First Aid 4, Mechanics 3, and tools with fine bolt turning and fine screw driving.
- Package it in an autoclave pouch. This requires it to be reset first.
- Sterilize it in an autoclave. Make sure it's packaged first.
There are two types of autoclaves, the stationary furniture and the item version. The furniture version is currently only found in research facilities, while the item version may spawn in various locations like labs, hospitals, and doctor's offices. The furniture autoclave consumes 64 units or 16L of water per cycle and does not need to be powered, while the item version consumes 2L of water and must be loaded with a heavy battery. It requires 8200 battery power to run, so can only be used with the heavy plutonium fuel battery. An autoclave cycle is 90 minutes.
An item autoclave can be converted into a mountable autoclave, which then can be mounted onto a vehicle, drawing from the vehicle's batteries and making it much more reasonable to use.
Installation
The bionic installation process requires an autodoc, a highly advanced medical apparatus that can conduct medical operations on players and NPCs, and some specific monsters—namely prototype cyborgs. For now, they are only used for installation/uninstallation of bionics and splinting broken limbs, but other types of operations are planned for the future.
The player has to manually configure the autodoc prior to every operation. Alternatively, if there is a friendly NPC with better suitable skills nearby, he'll begin configuring the autodoc for the player. Operation success chance is displayed in the autodoc menu, as is anesthetic usage and time of the operation.
If the patient does not have the Sensory Dulling CBM or the Deadened mutation, an anesthesia kit will be needed. An anesthesia kit holds 3L of anesthetic and can be reloaded indefinitely. A surgical procedure will consume a certain amount of anesthetic, which depends on the patient's weight and the difficulty of the bionic. After configuring the autodoc, it will inject anesthesia, putting the character into a state of narcosis where they won't react to most stimuli, including sounds and even monsters gnawing on their arm, so it's best to make sure you are safe before conducting the operation.
Installing bionics is based off intelligence and various skills. The most important skill is First Aid, followed by Computers and Electronics. For the best chances of operation success, raise those skills as high as you can, and also make sure as much as possible that no penalty is decreasing your intelligence.
The chance of success is equal to the following:
Chance of Success = (100 * Difficulty) / (Difficulty + sqrt(1 / Difficulty))
where
Difficulty = Adjusted Skill / (4 * Bionic Difficulty) Adjusted Skill = Skill - lesser of 40 or (Skill - Skill / 10) Skill = Intelligence * 4 + First Skill * 4 + Second Skill * 3 + Third Skill
The time an autodoc operation takes depends on the bionic's difficulty. The rule is 20 minutes per one point of difficulty, so installation time can vary from 20 minutes for the easiest bionics like Power Storage to four hours for the hardest ones like Synaptic Accelerator.
A body can hold unlimited Power Storage/mk. II bionics, and one of each other bionic. However, the Bionics interface can only accommodate about 30 or so before it starts to have trouble maintaining letters for all of them. Take this into account when you install a lot of bionics.
Installation Failure
The possible outcomes of installation are:
- successful installation
- failure without incident (Failure level of 0)
- failure with a chance of pain (Failure level of 1)
- failure with a chance of severe body damage (Failure level of 2 or 3)
- failure with a chance to install a malfunctioning bionic (Failure level of 4 or 5)
- failure with a chance of permanent power loss (this replaces installing a malfunctioning bionic if you have all of the malfunctioning bionics.)
Failing to install the bionic will return it to you, deployed and non-sterile, unless you managed to install a faulty bionic instead. Only the body parts a bionic occupies will be damaged. How much you failed by is then further modified to determine your failure level.
Your maximum level of failure is determined by the following formula:
Maximum Failure = SQRT ((100 - Chance of Success) * 4 * Bionic Difficulty / Adjusted Skill)
Maximum failure must be at least 4 to install a faulty CBM. In practice, any installation with a chance of failure higher than 28% can potentially give a faulty CBM. The exception is characters who started the game with a medical profession, which prevents any chance of a faulty bionic being installed.
Failing to install or uninstall a bionic can inflict up to 80 damage. This could very well instantly kill your character, so be warned.
Powering bionics
Some bionics don't need to be powered or activated, but many consume bionic power to fuel their usage. Max bionic power is listed on the (@) statistics screen in the BIONICS section below the traits section, while your current power is listed in the sidebar under Power. You can also use the bionics menu (p) to see current and max bionic power and a list of all your bionics, which you can toggle on and off from this screen. Bionic power is measured in kilojoules, with a maximum of 2100 kJ that the player can gain. You can increase your max bionic power by installing the Power Storage or Power Storage Mk. II CBMs for 100 and 250 max power respectively.
Sources of bionics power
To power your bionics, you will need a CBM that can charge your internal batteries. There are several bionics that can do so, with varying practicality and efficiency.
- Battery System - Consumes batteries for power.
- Cable Charger System - Uses jumper cables to drain power from vehicles.
- Ethanol Burner - Consumes ethanol, methanol, or denatured alcohol to generate power. Heats up your body while active.
- Gasoline Fuel Cell - Generates a lot of power by consuming gasoline, but heats your body significantly.
- Joint Torsion Ratchet - Generates a small amount of power while walking. When activated, generates more power at the cost of increasing stamina burn.
- Metabolic Interchange - Burns calories to generate power while active. Automatically turns off if you drop below 80% of starting calories, the point at which you begin to get messages.
Faulty bionics
As you can expect, things sometimes go wrong with shoving technology in your body. Several bionics exist that have purely negative effects, which hamper your character until they are uninstalled. A severely failed install can randomly install a faulty bionic. They also come pre-installed with certain professions, such as prototype and failed cyborgs, which challenge you to uninstall those bionics before they kill you. Faulty CBMs in item form can be dissected out of cyborgs.
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| Acidic Discharge | A malfunctioning bionic which occasionally discharges acid into your muscles, causing sharp pain and minor damage. |
| Bionic Nostril | You're really not sure how the CBM ended up in your nose, but no matter how it got there this badly misplaced bionic makes it difficult to breathe. Increases mouth encumbrance by one. |
| Bionic Short Circuit | A poorly-wired bionic which fails to serve its intended purpose, this malfunctioning device periodically short-circuits, causing systemic muscle tremors. |
| Bionic Visual Impairment | Due to a badly misplaced dielectric stylette you are now suffering from mild optic neuropathy. Increases eye encumbrance by one. |
| Bionic-Induced Deformity | A combination of poor surgical installation and unpleasant scarring has lead to the malfunctioning bionic catastrophe you call your face. People who mind that you look like a dime-store Frankenstein will react poorly to your appearance. |
| Electrical Discharge | A malfunctioning bionic which occasionally discharges electricity through your body, causing pain and brief paralysis but no damage. |
| Electrical Drain | A malfunctioning bionic. It doesn't perform any useful function, but will occasionally draw power from your batteries. |
| Endocrine Enervator | Through a combination of psychochemical manipulation and old fashioned electrical nerve stimulation, this malfunctioning bionic alters your brain chemistry in such a way as to cause fatigue. You will find yourself tiring a bit faster than before. |
| Itchy Metal Thing | A bionic of some sort, so badly installed that you cannot even tell what it was originally supposed to be. Sometimes it itches horribly. |
| Leaky Bionic | This botched piece of bionic hardware slowly leaks electrolytic compounds, piezoelectric nanomaterials, and other high-tech contaminants into your bloodstream. Needless to say, this is not good for your health. |
| Motor Control Overstimulator | One piezoelectric solenoid surgically installed backwards, two crossed wires, and four burned-out capacitors later you started falling on your face and writhing around at the least convenient times. This incorrectly-configured bionic periodically stuns you for a short duration. |
| Noisemaker | A malfunctioning bionic. It will occasionally emit a loud burst of noise. |
| Power Overload | Damaged power circuits cause short-circuiting inside your muscles when your batteries are above 75% capacity, causing greatly reduced strength. This has no effect if you have no internal batteries. |
| Self-Locking Thumbs | Self-locking thumbs hold tight (even when you really don't want them to) and don't let go (even when you'd rather they did). Increases hand encumbrance by two, while failing to improve your ability to hold objects whatsoever. |
| Squeaky Ankles | In a cruel twist of fate, a poorly executed CBM surgery has given you a pair of useless bionics which make squeaking noises when you walk. |
| Visual Disruptor | A malfunctioning bionic which causes occasional visual distortion and pixelation. |
| Voice Remodulator | You will likely spend the rest of your days serving as a walking testament to why you don't opt for the Autodoc's 'Cyborg Identity Package.' A remodulator unit jammed down your throat has given you a creepy robot voice. |
| Wire-Induced Stiffness | Improperly installed wires cause a physical stiffness in most of your body, causing increased encumbrance. |
Removing Bionics
Uninstallation in 0.D (Danny) is only possible through the autodoc or NPC surgeon. All features of installing (need for anesthesia, time required for operation, etc.) are applicable for uninstallation too. Uninstallation is noticeably more difficult than installing bionics and can do serious/fatal damage on a failure. On a success, no damage is taken. To determine the removal difficulty, the bionic difficulty is taken, and 2 points are added to it. Faulty bionics vary a lot in difficulty values.
Mods
Manual Bionic Installation
Allows you to install bionics the old way, without use of an autodoc. To manually install a CBM, you'll have to activate it first. Skills used are electronics, first aid, and mechanics, in that order. Anesthetic is not used. Attempting to manual self-install a bionic will practice a character's skills. Amount of gained exp is based on chance to fail current installation:
for electronics: (100 - Chance of Success) * 1.5 for first aid: (100 - Chance of Success) * 1.0 for mechanics: (100 - Chance of Success) * 0.5
Bionic Slots
Limits the number of bionics you can install in each body part. Each bionic takes up a certain number of slots. Available slots are as follows.
- Torso - 80
- Head - 18
- Eyes - 4
- Mouth - 4
- Left/right arm - 20
- Left/right hand - 5
- Left/right leg - 30
- Left/right foot - 7
Safe Autodoc
Removes any and all failure chance for installing bionics.
Changes
- 0.7 (Lindqvist) - Bionics can be retrieved from butchered player corpses.
- 0.B (Brin) - Feature to remove bionics added; previous versions only allowed removal with critical failure on install.
- 0.D (Danny) - (Un)installing bionics requires autodoc and anesthesia, beta version of the debug slots system.
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