Guide to Combat

As with all space station forks, preparation is one of the most important aspects of getting into combat.

Cover & Medicine

In extended gunfights, having cover you can retreat to and heal yourself is absolutely vital and will extend how long you can engage in combat, and thus, how long you can apply damage to the enemy. Gauze is one of the most effective topicals for dealing with gunshots, preventing bleed damage and healing the wound. For lasers and Energy weapons, you will want ointment. The medical department will be fully stocked with topicals and healing chemicals, and will be a good resource for dealing with antagonists who will have a long term presence on the station, such as dragons or colossi. Pills and drinks will take a few seconds to metabolize, often requiring you to take them shortly before you start taking damage to make full use of.

In melee combat, the closer distance makes it much harder to take cover and take time to heal yourself. In large fights, you can still often back up at low health and rely on other people to hold the frontline until your healed up and can move to the front yourself.

Dropping to low health will slow you down, making getting away harder! Be careful and keep an eye on your health at all times.

Exploiting Weaknesses

All enemies have some sort of weakness you can exploit. Most crew will be susceptible to slipping: making soap, puddles, banana peels, and the clown's PDA useful items that can slow them down and cause them to drop their held items, potentially allowing you to disarm your opponent!

Some species take extra damage from certain damage types, such as moths and heat damage. Shift click (by default) someone to quickly see their species. The in-game guidebook can be a valuable resource while preparing, but won't be too useful if your already in combat.

Likewise, people can be lacking armor over certain parts of their body, Checking their sprite and changing which body part your targeting mid combat can be extremely difficult, but if you get the chance to examine them beforehand make note of any weaknesses they have! (keep note of glasses, masks, and similar items that provide minor protection to the head, and may make seemingly weaker head armor tankier than expected). If your only goal is to get away, targeting legs to reduce their movespeed can be quite useful.

Finally, even if someone is fully armored, keep in mind what damage types their armor provides the most and least protection against. Chaplain's armor, for example, is very weak to pierce! This will require some memorization, but even noticing that someone is very slow in their armor can give you an edge by using that slowness to hit them with grenades, or using your own speed to take cover and heal. Speed is one of the most important tools in all space station combat! Lets talk about a very effective way to destroy an opponents speed.

The Bola

Bolas can be made with the makeshift handcuffs from LV cables, and some steel, or single use energy versions can be made by the security department. With a single throw, this item can wrap around someone and reduce their speed massively, preventing them from running away or dodging. Likewise, their slow speed means you can run away and entirely avoid melee attacks. A second bola will increase the effects. This can be countered by the freedom implanter from the traitor's and nukie's uplink, which will remove it instantly.