Xenobiologist

Xenobiology is the study of alien lifeforms, and on the Horizon this usually takes the form of breeding and harvesting slimes for their extracts, or 'cores.' In the xenobiology lab, scientists use these cores to further the cause of research - but the job is a dangerous one.

Familiarize Yourself
First, get familiar with your new home.


 * In the airlock to the lab, you can find biosuits inside of level 3 biohazard lockers. There are also showers and a sink, for decontamination.


 * In the entryway to the main lab, you will find a table with a camera, an empty jar, and a lamp. On the wall is an Emergency NanoMed, for first aid.


 * Between the entryway and the main lab, you will find a slime core extractor and, next to it, a rack with a slime core bag and a SmartFridge set to hold slime cores.


 * In the main lab, between the slime pens, is a table with a grinder for phoron, some phoron sheets, slime scanners, and boxes of syringes. A rack with monkey cubes can be found in one corner of the room; in the other corner are xenoblasters and slime batons, for protecting yourself from slimes.


 * The extracting area is a small room to the northeast. It has an operating table for extracting cores from slimes, a scalpel and circular saw to do the procedure, and a crematorium for disposing of anything dead monkeys or slimes.


 * Around the edge of the lab there are six holding pens. Any of these pens can locked down with blast doors by pressing the button on the table near the pen. At the start of the round, four pens will be occupied by baby grey slimes, which a xenobiologist uses to start slime breeding. Each slime pen is equipped with a delivery chute and a disposals outlet for safely delivering monkeys to your slimes.

Get equipped
Before you start breeding slimes, make sure you have a xeno-blaster, filled with water. Since water is your best option for killing a slime, you should always have some nearby.

In addition, you will need a supply of monkeys, available from the boxes of monkey cubes on the rack in the main room. Simply unwrap one and run it under water in the sink for an instant primate.

Gotta catch em' all!
Get to know your test subjects! Slimes evolved uniquely from the first primordial life, and have several unique properties that vary from type to type.

You begin with four 'grey slimes' which can split into multiple new colors once fully grown. Each color of slime has its own powers that can be harvested via its extract.

When well fed, an adult slime will split into four baby slimes, each with a 14-35% chance of mutating (the exact chance can be read with the Slime Analyzer). In theory, this means a 45%-82% chance of at least one mutation (depending on the particular slime's genetic mutability), but this is not something you should count on. This flowchart shows the results of each slime's mutations when splitting, with options labeled "2x" having twice the chance of occurring.



Recommended Slimes
Keeping at least one pen producing grey slimes is a very good idea in order to have a sustainable monkey supply.

Purple slimes produce slime steroids. These steroids, when fed to slimes before they are killed, will result in that slime producing three cores instead of one. Using them on grey slimes will therefore yield three monkey cubes, and using one of a dark purple slime will yield three times as much phoron, et cetera. Try harvesting a purple slime and then using the steroids from it on a second purple slime for even more steroid.

Population Control
You should aim to have 1-6 slimes, depending on how many pens you wish to use. Trying to breed too many slimes will make them difficult to control, and if you run out (and have no grey slime extract to start over) your job for the shift is over.

Decide on how many slimes you think you can handle at once, keeping in mind that the adults split into four when sated.

1-6 Baby Slimes
If you need more extracts, put one monkey in the disposal and wait for the slime(s) to grow, then another and wait for the slime(s) to split.

As tempting as it may be, do not send in two monkeys at once. The slime might decide the second is a friend and refuse to eat it!

Stay in sight of the slimes to keep an eye on when they grow and split.

Adult Slimes Have Split
Time to kill one or more of the offspring! Warning: This is the part of the job that's most likely to get you killed.

Ideally, you want to do this the EXACT moment after the slime in the pen (You ARE keeping only one adult slime per pen, right?) has split.

Select which slime(s) you want to breed (If there is more than one, put each in its own empty pen or make room in a occupied one) and kill the rest with water.

Once you have them there, simply spray with water. Once the ones you don't want are dead, feed the remaining slimes, harvesting extracts as needed.

A Slime Wants to be Your Special Friend
So you managed to piss it off, eh? With no water nearby, your safest bet is to push it off (click with an empty hand and disarm intent on the slime) and leg it. Hide in a locker and yell for help if they've broken loose and you can't get out of the lab, but it would be a good idea to let your rescuers know what is waiting for them once they arrive!

Extract Harvesting
To extract slime cores with the slime core extractor, click and drag a slime onto the extractor. The extractor will process the slime and eject two cores either onto its tile or into an adjacent slime core bag.

To extract slime cores on the operating table, drag the dead slime over to the operating table and set your intent to grab and click on the table to lay it down. Then use a scalpel on the slime twice. Use your circular saw to remove extracts until the slime is out of extracts. (Unless you used a slime steroid on the slime before killing it, there should be only one.)

Formulas
Grey Slime
 * Inject the extract with:
 * Blood: Creates a portal that ejects 4 total monkey cubes, then collapses. The cubes can hit you and cause bruises. Standing on the portal itself is safe.
 * Phoron: Creates a grey slime. Could be useful if you have extra grey slimes, but want to make sure you don't run out of them, or if you want to be sure to have a grey slime to start over with. When entering late in the round when the initial slimes have starved, cutting out their cores and injecting them with phoron will let you continue.
 * Potential Children: Grey, Orange, Purple, Blue, Metal.
 * Potential Parents: Grey.

Orange Slime s Purple Slimes
 * Inject the extract with:
 * Phoron: When injected with phoron, after a short delay the extract will create a phoron fire. Phoron fires are extremely hot, very deadly, will contaminate your clothing, and can easily kill.
 * Blood: Extract creates 50 units of capsaicin (pepper spray/hot sauce) when injected with blood. Needs to be removed from the slime core via syringe to be usable; beware, since slime cores also contain toxic slime jelly. Usable as a 'ghetto stun' if you can find a good way to apply it to to your victim test subject.
 * Potential Children: Orange, Dark Purple, Yellow, Red
 * Potential Parents: Grey, Orange, Yellow, Dark Purple, Red
 * Inject the extract with:
 * Phoron: Extract creates a bottle of slime steroid when injected with phoron. Slime steroid is a potent chemical mix that will cause a slime to generate more extract. Useful when used on grey slimes for monkeys, purple slimes for resources, or just about any slime you want to research thoroughly. Apply it to a baby slime before killing it, and it will have three cores when harvested manually, or four when harvested with the slime extractor.
 * Sugar: Inject extract with sugar to create slime jelly, a highly toxic substance. Useful if you need to frame the cook.
 * Potential Children: Purple, Dark Purple, Dark Blue, Green
 * Potential Parents: Grey, Purple, Dark Purple, Dark Blue

Blue Slime
 * Inject the extract with:
 * Water: Extract creates 10 units of frost oil. This is created inside the extract and can be drawn out with a syringe.
 * Potential Children: Blue, Dark Blue, Silver, Pink
 * Potential Parents: Grey, Blue, Dark Blue, Silver

Metal Slime
 * Inject the extract with:
 * Phoron: Creates a portal which spits out 30 sheets of metal and 15 sheets of plasteel. Expect the roboticist to want the products.
 * Potential Children: Metal, Yellow, Silver, Gold
 * Potential Parents: Grey, Metal, Silver, Yellow

Dark Purple Slime
 * Inject the extract with:
 * Phoron: Creates a portal which spits out 8 sheets of gold, silver, and uranium, and 4 sheets of diamond.
 * Potential Children: Dark Purple, Orange, Purple
 * Potential Parents: Dark Purple, Orange, Purple

Dark Blue Slime
 * Inject the extract with:
 * Water: Creates a burst of cold after a short time. This is useful for killing slimes in an area around you, for example if you had incautiously activated a red slime extract. The burst is not guaranteed to kill all slimes in the area.
 * Potential Children: Dark Blue, Purple, Blue
 * Potential Parents: Dark Blue, Purple, Blue

Silver Slime
 * Inject the extract with:
 * Phoron: Creates a small number of random food items which can be literally anything edible, from the mundane to the exotic--including things like brain burgers, death berries, or even human meat.
 * Potential Children: Silver, Blue, Metal.
 * Potential Parents: Silver, Blue, Metal

Yellow Slime
 * Inject the extract with:
 * Phoron: Extracts become self-recharging slime cores, equivalent to low grade power cells.
 * Blood: Extract creates an EMP after five seconds. It's a quite big blast as well, useful if that AI is onto your tricks.
 * Water: Extract creates a glowing slime extract that emits light like a flashlight.
 * Potential Children: Yellow, Orange, Metal
 * Potential Parents: Yellow, Orange, Metal

Red Slime
 * Inject the extract with:
 * Phoron: Creates Slime Glycerol.
 * Blood: Makes nearby slimes rabid. Has some fun uses. Slimes will still pay attention to "friend" designations, and will not attack you if they consider you one.
 * Potential Children: Red, Oil
 * Potential Parents: Red, Orange

Green Slime
 * Inject the extract with:
 * Phoron: Creates a bluespace anomaly, which will teleport you and everything in a seven tile circular radius around you to a random ship area.
 * Potential Children: Green, Black
 * Potential Parents: Green, Purple

Pink Slime
 * Inject the extract with:
 * Blood: Creates a bottle of docility potion, a potent chemical mix that will nullify a baby slime's powers, causing it to become docile and tame and letting you name it. You too can have your own pet, just like the HoP!
 * Potential Children: Pink, Light Pink
 * Potential Parents: Blue, Pink

Gold Slime
 * Inject the extract with:
 * Phoron: Creates hostile animals.
 * Potential Children: Gold, Adamantine
 * Potential Parents: Metal, Gold

Oil Slime
 * Inject the extract with:
 * Phoron: Creates an explosion after a moment.
 * Potential Children: Oil
 * Potential parents: Oil, Red

Black Slime
 * Inject the extract with:
 * Phoron: Creates one unit of advanced mutation toxin, which can be drawn back out of the used extract with a syringe. The toxin turns you into a baby slime.
 * Potential Children: Black
 * Potential Parents: Black, Green

Light Pink Slime
 * Inject the extract with:
 * Blood: Creates a bottle of docility potion. Docility potion is a potent chemical mix that will nullify an adult slime's powers, causing it to become docile and tame. Now you can have a pet that is bigger than the HoP's!
 * Potential Children: Light Pink
 * Potential Parents: Light Pink, Pink

Adamantine Slime
 * Inject the extract with:
 * Phoron: Creates a rune that can summon an adamantine golem, a player-controlled construct that will follow its creator's orders. If no player is available for the golem, the rune will fizzle, but can be re-used.
 * Potential Children: Adamantine
 * Potential Parents: Adamantine, Gold

Golems
There are many types of golems, including metal, bronze or phoron, created by putting ten units of the material in question on top of the rune before summoning your golem. All have different stats, so experiment! Use various minerals to your advantage! Experiment: Which minerals can become a golem, and which cannot? WARNING: Phoron golems are extremely flammable; create phoron golems at your own risk!

How to make an efficient slime farm

 * First of all: Get some water and kill/harvest one or two of your starting baby grey slimes. If the rest of your slimes die after that, or if they mutate into colors you don't like, you can use this extract to start over.


 * Soak a monkey cube in water and feed it to the slime by dragging it to the disposal and putting it in. Engage the disposal and maintain line of sight to the slime while it eats the monkey. This helps ensure that the slime will not try to eat you, as you will be considered a friend. This sentiment is also passed to the new baby slimes when this one splits.


 * Keep your slimes well-fed. If they are large and hungry enough, they will start trying to destroy the windows of their pens and may even escape. Next to your surgery room is a switch that activates blast doors that can be closed if your slimes get cranky.


 * Feeding slimes and watching them grow can have them imprint on the user. Try speaking to them to discover if a successful imprint has occurred. The process is rare but extremely helpful.


 * Don't run out of monkey cubes. For long-term experiments, this means maintaining a line of grey slimes in addition to whatever experimental breeding you are doing.


 * Be prepared for injuries. Even slimes that see you as a "friend" may still glomp you, causing brute damage and potentially even breaking bones. If they are hungry enough or don't see you as a friend at all, they will also attempt to eat you, causing genetic damage. It's advisable to keep your suit sensors on full (tracking beacon included) so that medical personnel can find you if you are badly hurt. Genetic damage is not visible on the sensors, but brute damage is, and if medical is paying attention they will see you getting hurt. If you are too hurt to get to Medical, call for help over the radio. It will take rescue a while to get to you since Xenobiology is behind several locked doors, but it's better than dying while your slimes smugly watch you bleed out.


 * Xenobiology includes a basic NanoMed vendor by the operating area which may help you treat minor injuries, or stay alive longer after major ones.

So You're a Traitor
Sadly, what you can get here that can't be gotten easier elsewhere is an EMP and random hostile animals, including a few very deadly ones. Releasing the slimes is somewhat viable, but you will likely get caught doing so and baby slimes are rather tame (unless you have red slime essence to make them rabid).

You do have access to some of the science wing, and can probably talk your way into other parts. You also have access to a crematorium--pretty handy for disposing of evidence, and also for throwing in anyone who has been stuck with a parapen. Xenobiology is also pretty isolated, and you may be able to get away with, say, abducting assistants as test subjects. As a traitor, your xenobiologist makes a great mad scientist.

Your slime cores give you access to fire, explosions, EMPs, rare minerals to bribe people with, and slime jelly to kill people with, as well as some unusual effects like the silver slime's random food generation. If the chef is also a traitor, or if you can frame the chef, you may be able to do some damage by sneaking slime jelly into the crew's food supply.

If all else fails, your traitor xenobiologist may decide they're tired of being human and decide to become a slime instead... and if people get eaten along the way, well, they shouldn't have looked so delicious!