Adaptive Nanite Swarm
The adaptive nanite swarm, also known as Felcesis Thrice-Speared, is an autonomous and malevolent nanite swarm that invades the player's battles when they are at high Guilt, infesting and empowering hostile ships.
Triggering Invasions
| Caution: extreme neutrino signature detected | ||
–ingame alert | ||
Invasions only occur if the player's guilt is at least 4. The base chance of an invasion at this threshold is 15%, increased by 9% per 1 additional point of guilt, reaching 100% at 14 guilt.
The invasion chance is rolled at the start of any head-to-head battle the player partakes in. If the nanite swarm finds a valid enemy ship to infest, it will display an alert and infest the ship over a few seconds.
The nanite swarm chooses ships based on their hidden fleet point value, which corresponds roughly to their combat strength. It chooses a random ship from the more powerful half of the enemy fleet, with a preference for higher-strength ships, commonly picking the enemy flagship or a similarly intimidating ship. "Superfrigates" such as the Hyperion have an extra chance to be picked.
There are some restrictions on what the nanite swarm can infest:
- It cannot infest ships that are too weak. This includes civilian ships, those unusually weak for their size class, or frigates with no shields, phase cloak or other defensive system.
- It cannot infest ships that are too strong, to avoid unfair battles. This includes ships that cannot be obtained by the player, that are excessively strong for their size class, or that already have exceptionally skilled officers (level 10 or higher). Stations cannot be infested.
If no suitable ship is found, the invasion is cancelled. The infestation subsides after the ship is destroyed or begins retreating. There are no lingering effects from a ship being infested and it can be recovered as normal if desired.
The nanite swarm visually changes once the player reaches the guilt madness threshold at 7 guilt. In-game messaging will begin referring to it as a malevolent spirit, Felcesis Thrice-Speared. This does not otherwise alter the swarm's behavior.
Nanite Swarm Skills
| I SEE YOU
EVERY UNWAKING MOMENT |
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– madness | ||
The nanite swarm is a highly capable officer with 7-9 combat skills suitable for its chosen ship. This number scales to its upper limit very quickly as the player's fleet size increases.
Once it has infested a ship, the nanite swarm will analyze its new host along with the player's fleet and semi-randomly pick from a unique set of additional skills, which have powerful and exotic effects. These skills are divided into offensive, hybrid and defensive skills. Most of these skills have their chance of appearance modified by the player's fleet makeup and the host ship's features. For example, skills that counter fighters appear more often if the player's fleet is mostly carriers.
The nanite swarm typically picks 3 of these skills. This count is reduced by 1 if the player's fleet is extremely small, and increased by 1 if they are playing the Haunted and have kicked the swarm's idol at the Killa shrine. These special skills appear at the bottom of the skill readout when targeting the nanite swarm's ship.
The swarm picks special skill categories as follows. Hybrid skills are considered to be both offensive and defensive, but are picked less often in either category.
| Skill count | Categories |
|---|---|
| 2 | 1 offensive, 1 either offensive or defensive |
| 3 | 1 offensive, 1 defensive, 1 of either |
| 4 | 2 offensive, 2 defensive |
The table below lists all of the swarm's special skills, a short description and any biases towards when it is picked over other skills.
| Name | Description | Favored when... |
|---|---|---|
| Offensive | ||
| Hatred Beyond Death | Ship regains half its hull upon reaching 0 hull and gains Safety Overrides, but decays over time before finally flinging itself at its killer and exploding | Host ship is not a backline carrier |
| Leviathan's Bane | Ship marks nearby ships that are larger than itself for a shot from "The Hidecracker", a ruinous anti-ship cannon | Much of the player's fleet is larger than the nanite's host |
| Jubilant Tech-Siren | Ship periodically hacks nearby enemy ships and fighters akin to Cyberwarfare Protocols, temporarily disrupting them | Host ship has Cyberwarfare Suite or player has many carriers |
| Hybrid | ||
| A Trickster's Calling | Ship periodically steals missile ammo from nearby hostiles and temporarily phases at half hull | Player fleet has many missile-using ships, and host ship uses missiles |
| Dear Dotty | Ship gains the help of one manifestation of Dotty, a powerful escort drone | No particular biases |
| Wispering Grovetender | Ship raises wisps from ships and fighters that are destroyed nearby | Player fleet has many carriers |
| Defensive | ||
| Hellion's Hellhide | Ship gains a damage mitigating skinshield that recharges over time | Host ship has no shields |
| In Sacrifice, Meaning | Ship periodically transfers flux to nearby allies, overloading them | Host ship must have shields or a phase cloak, and many allies |
| Mantle of Thorns | Ship reflects damage taken to shields as EMP arcs, building up to a large shield-piercing EMP storm | Host ship must have shields |