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.



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 times as many monkey cubes, and using one of a dark purple slime will yield three times as many rare metals, et cetera. Try harvesting a purple slime and then using the steroids from it on a second purple slime for even more steroid.

Cerulean slimes produce extract enhancers. Apply an extract enhancer to a slime extract to give it three uses. It is possible to use a slime steroid on a slime, then use extract enhancers on the resulting extracts.

Silver slimes produce food. Although some of the food will be inedible or poisonous, odds are you'll get something edible, saving you the trouble of going to the vending machines and preventing the usual situation of well-fed slimes and a hungry xenobiologist.

Sepia, Dark Purple, and Metal slimes produce construction resources. Most useful if Mining is not active.

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.)

Slime Extracts
Each slime extract contains 30u of slime jelly, a highly toxic substance, which can be drawn from it with a syringe or extracted by grinding the extract in a grinder. When using extracts to create other reagents, it is important to separate the slime jelly from the desired reagent. Slime Jelly is identical in appearance to Cherry Jelly, and can be used in many recipes that are normally made with Cherry Jelly; this will poison the resulting food.

When using slime extracts to create portals that will eject objects, be aware that the portal throws objects in a 3x3 radius around itself; the objects can hit anyone standing in the area and cause injury equivalent to a thrown object or an object ejected from a malfunctioning vending machine. Standing on the portal itself is safe.

When injecting extracts with phoron, remember that you have a limited quantity--five sheets--and cannot easily make more.

Grey Slime
 * Inject the extract with:
 * 1u 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.
 * 1u 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
 * Inject the extract with:
 * 1u Blood: Creates 10u capsaicin inside the extract.
 * 1u Phoron: Creates a phoron fire after a short delay. Phoron fires are extremely hot, very deadly, will contaminate your clothing, and can easily kill. Throwing the extract before it activates might keep you from getting burned. Might.
 * Potential Children: Orange, Dark Purple, Yellow, Red
 * Potential Parents: Grey, Orange, Yellow, Dark Purple, Red

Purple Slime
 * Inject the extract with:
 * 1u 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, dark 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.
 * 1u Sugar: Creates 10u Slime Jelly inside the extract.
 * Potential Children: Purple, Dark Purple, Dark Blue, Green
 * Potential Parents: Grey, Purple, Dark Purple, Dark Blue

Blue Slime
 * Inject the extract with:
 * 1u Water: Creates 10u frost oil inside the extract.
 * Potential Children: Blue, Dark Blue, Silver, Pink
 * Potential Parents: Grey, Blue, Dark Blue, Silver

Metal Slime
 * Inject the extract with:
 * 1u Phoron: Creates a portal which ejects 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:
 * 1u Phoron: Creates a portal which ejects 8 sheets of gold, silver, and uranium, and 4 sheets of diamond.
 * Potential Children: Dark Purple, Orange, Purple, Sepia
 * Potential Parents: Dark Purple, Orange, Purple

Dark Blue Slime
 * Inject the extract with:
 * 1u Water: Creates a burst of cold after a short delay. This is useful for killing slimes in an area around you. The burst is not guaranteed to kill all slimes in the area, but will thin them out considerably. Useful as a failsafe, in case your slimes try to eat you or any visitors you may have in your lab.
 * Potential Children: Dark Blue, Purple, Blue, Cerulean
 * Potential Parents: Dark Blue, Purple, Blue

Silver Slime
 * Inject the extract with:
 * 1u Phoron: Creates a small number of random food items which can be literally anything edible, from the mundane to the exotic--including everything from perfectly edible dishes regularly seen in the kitchen to exotic meat and poisoned food. If you plan to eat slime-created food, it is recommended to scan each item with a reagent scanner beforehand, or else to know enough about food to determine which items may be poisonous.
 * Potential Children: Silver, Blue, Metal, Pyrite.
 * Potential Parents: Silver, Blue, Metal

Yellow Slime
 * Inject the extract with:
 * 1u Blood: Extract creates an EMP after a short delay. It's a quite big blast as well, useful if that AI is onto your tricks.
 * 1u Phoron: Extracts become self-recharging slime cores, equivalent to low grade power cells.
 * 1u Water: Extract glows, emitting light like a flashlight.
 * Potential Children: Yellow, Orange, Metal
 * Potential Parents: Yellow, Orange, Metal

Red Slime
 * Inject the extract with:
 * 1u 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.
 * 10u Phoron: Creates 1u Red Nightshade in the extract.
 * 1u Sugar: Creates 8u Glycerol in the extract.
 * Potential Children: Red, Oil
 * Potential Parents: Red, Orange

Green Slime
 * Inject the extract with:
 * 10u Carbon and 10u Silver: Creates a bluespace crystal.
 * 5u 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:
 * 1u Phoron: 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!
 * 1u Water: Creates 5u Paxazide inside the extract.
 * Potential Children: Pink, Light Pink
 * Potential Parents: Blue, Pink

Gold Slime
 * Inject the extract with:
 * 1u Phoron: Creates a small number of hostile mobs.
 * Potential Children: Gold, Adamantine
 * Potential Parents: Metal, Gold

Oil Slime
 * Inject the extract with:
 * 1u Phoron: Creates an explosion after a short delay.
 * 1u Water: Creates a portal which ejects 5 sheets of Plastic and 5 sheets of Glass.
 * Potential Children: Oil
 * Potential parents: Oil, Red

Black Slime
 * Inject the extract with:
 * 5u Phoron: Creates 1u Advanced Mutation Toxin within the extract. When injected, the toxin turns you into a baby slime.
 * Potential Children: Black
 * Potential Parents: Black, Green

Light Pink Slime
 * Inject the extract with:
 * 5u Phoron: Creates a bottle of advanced docility serum, 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:
 * 5u 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

Sepia Slime
 * Inject the extract with:
 * 1u Blood: Creates a portal that ejects three pieces of Hide and three pieces of Leather.
 * 1u Water: Creates a portal that ejects three pieces of Wood, three pieces of Cloth, and three pieces of Cardboard.
 * Potential Children: Sepia
 * Potential Parents: Dark Purple

Cerulean Slime
 * Inject the extract with:
 * 1u Phoron: Creates an Extract Enhancer, which can be applied to an extract to give it three uses instead of one.
 * Potential Children: Cerulean
 * Potential Parents: Dark Blue

Pyrite Slime
 * Inject the extract with:
 * 5u Bicaridine: Creates 10u Butazoline
 * 5u Cryoxadone: Creates 5u Clonexadone
 * 5u Dexalin: Creates 10u Dexalin Plus
 * 5u EZ Nutrient: Creates 10u Diethylamine
 * 5u Inaprovaline: Creates 10u Coagzolug
 * 5u Kelotane: Creates 10u Dermaline
 * 5u Mercury: Creates 1u Dextrotoxin
 * 5u Radium: Creates 10u Unstable Mutagen
 * 5u Sugar: Creates 10u Hyperzine
 * Potential Children: Pyrite
 * Potential Parents: Silver

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.

Interacting with Other Departments
As a xenobiologist, you'll spend most of your time behind your blast doors, dealing with your dangerous subjects. However, you too are a useful member of the crew.

Research will appreciate rare metals from dark purple slimes, bluespace crystals from green slimes, and a few extra slime cores to scan in their destructive analyzer. If there are no miners on duty, prioritize Research and the mechanist's workshop. You will also want to work with Research to analyze the more exotic properties of your slimes--especially since they have access to Research's chemistry lab, and you do not.

Command is useful for getting chemistry lab access; and of course, you are responsible for reporting experimental results to the research director.

The Mechanist will appreciate rare metals from dark purple slimes, and steel and plasteel from metal slimes.

Ops often has a bounty that involves delivering slime extracts. Ask them early in the shift, so as to have enough time to breed the required slime. These bounties can be quite lucrative, and will be appreciated.

Engineering may appreciate construction materials from dark purple, metal, and sepia slimes; though they are generally well supplied, you have the ability to produce nearly limitless quantities. However, many non-Engineering personnel are also trained in simple construction, and will happily use your materials (or commission someone else to use your materials) to add a wood floor to their office or a plush armchair to their waiting rooms.

Medical may appreciate medication harvested from pyrite slime extracts; it's a lot more tedious for you to produce them, but if they have no pharmacist, you may be their only source of advanced medication. Request a bottle of the injected reagent and process it using your slime cores to produce more advanced medication. If you deliver them in the form of extracts rather than separating out the medication yourself, be sure to warn them about the poisonous slime jelly before delivering your bounty; the pharmacist (or anyone capable of using the pharmacy equipment) will need to remove the slime jelly before the medication is useful. There is also a small chance that some of the food you produce with silver slime extracts will contain carpotoxin, which the pharmacist can turn into useful medication (or dangerous poisons).

Service may (or may not) appreciate delivery of capsaicin, frost oil, or slime-created foods and food ingredients. Be careful to deliver only edible, non-toxic food (unless delivering poison is your intent, of course).

Emergency responders--usually medics, security teams, and firefighters from Engineering--may be needed to fight enraged slimes, rampaging summoned monsters, or phoron fires, or to rescue you from your own slimes or their toxins. To maintain good relationships with Medical, remember to keep your suit sensors maximized whenever your job gets dangerous (unless you prioritize privacy over safety, that is). You have access to an Emergency Nanomed dispenser in your lab. Inject yourself with inaprovaline (or, if poisoned, with dylovene) to buy time. If you are hurt, try to get outside your lab and into the hallway so that medics can get to you--they do not have access, and will otherwise have to get someone to open the door for them or hack their way in through the door or the walls. Always warn emergency responders of any dangers they may encounter. If you are contaminated with phoron, remove contaminated clothes (no one cares about modesty in an emergency) and warn responders that you are contaminated. If you have started a fire or created a breach to vacuum, warn responders about the fire or the breach.

You will also, occasionally, become an emergency responder yourself. Occasionally, slimes may emerge in a completely random location on the ship, and the ship's announcement system will alert the crew of this. The slimes will initially be relatively docile, but they become hungry quickly and must be dealt with. Remember that not everyone knows how to kill slimes, and advise any responders that they should use fire extinguishers or buckets of water; or just take care of the problem yourself.

The ship may also encounter other varieties of xenofauna, and since you're the closest thing to an expert on exotic critters, you may be drafted to examine, contain, analyze, or consult with the rest of the crew on everything from relatively ordinary Greimorians and Space Carp to things you've never heard of, or heard only rumors and theories about.

So You're a Traitor
Xenobiology gives you access to a few unique resources, including hostile animals (including a few very deadly ones), unfailingly loyal golems, teleportation, and instant EMPs, fires, or explosions. 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.

Pyrite slime cores can give you access to dextrotoxin to paralyze others and hyperzine to speed you up.

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!