Anomalous Research
One of R&D's main ways to harvest research points, and the leading cause of headaches in captains of non-coordinated stations. Anomalous Research is a subdepartment of R&D focused around the containment and manipulation of various unique anomalies.
Anomalies
Anomalies are created by the Anomaly Generator, located in the R&D department. They can also be generated by random events. The properties of each anomaly vary wildly, but they all share a set of similar characteristics.
- they cannot be moved by conventional means (pushing/pulling)
- they cannot be interacted with in any meaningful way without the use of anomalous particle acceleration technology
- they all have passive effects on their surroundings
- they all perform "pulses", periodic bursts of energy with varying effects based on the type of anomaly
- they all undergo dangerous "critical events" when their severity stat hits 100%
- they can all be "harvested" by an anomaly vessel for the passive generation of research points
- they all pose varying degrees of hazard to the station and the crew
Stats
All anomalies have three similar stats - Severity, Stability, and Health. They can also have random modifiers which affect their mechanics.
- Severity affects the magnitude of an anomaly's passive and pulse effects, and causes a critical event when it reaches 100%. It also affects the anomaly's point output, if it has been assigned to a vessel.
- Stability dictates whether or not the Severity stat increases each time a pulse occurs. Stability can be either Decaying, Stable, or Growing. A Decaying anomaly loses Health over time, while a Growing anomaly will gain Severity on each pulse. A Growing anomaly also generates a lot more points.
- Health is a hidden stat not available to the player, and decreases when "containment" particles are used on an anomaly. Once an anomaly reaches 0 health, it simply disappears.
- Modifiers can be discovered by scanning an anomaly. These can affect the anomaly in many ways, such as making it invisible, masking some of the data gained when scanning it (such as its Severity or what particles do what), giving it a protective shell that sometimes reflects particles, multiplying its point gain, and many more.
Anomaly Types
| Image | Name | Description | Critical Event |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
Pyroclastic | Bright pink and extremely hot. Constantly heats up the surroundings and periodically sets its surroundings aflame. | Explodes into a huge gout of burning plasma. |
 |
Electric | A small mote of light. Constantly emits light and periodically shocks everything nearby. | Emits an electromagnetic storm that zaps everyone nearby and destroys electrical systems. |
 |
Gravitational | A dark orb. Constantly pulls nearby light/medium objects toward itself and periodically pushes them away violently, tearing up floors and doors in the process. | Causes a very large explosion. |
 |
Flesh | A pulsating sphere of meat. Constantly converts nearby tiles to flesh and periodically spawns hostile flesh monsters. | The anomaly evolves into tendon, a mass of meaty vines that spread anywhere they can, looking for prey. |
 |
Bluespace | A collection of glowing blue rings. Constantly acts as a one-way portal to a random nearby location and periodically changes its position on the station. Can teleport people and objects into walls, in which case they will be slowly crushed to death. | Teleports all nearby organisms to a random point in local space. |
 |
Ice | Constantly lowers the ambient temperature and periodically shoots ice crystals, favoring living creatures as targets. | Dissolves into a cloud of frezon gas. |
| [Under Construction] | Tech | On pulse, connects to random nearby devices like doors, A.P.E.s, and anything else that can be configured with a multitool, and activates them. | [Under Construction] |
| [Under Construction] | Floral | On pulse, generates floral carpets, trees, and strange berries containing random plants. Floral carpets can spread on their own like kudzu, and will also spawn hostile creatures made of light periodically. | [Under Construction] |
| [Under Construction] | Shadow | On pulse, generates clouds of darkness, and shadow rifts which teleport anything that touches them randomly. Darkness can be cleared with a flash. | Randomly places dense clouds of darkness out to a huge range. |
| [Under Construction] | Rock | On pulse, converts some ground tiles to dusty rock, and creates solid walls of rock in empty spaces near it. These walls can contain ores, and also ore crabs. | [Under Construction] |
| [Under Construction] | Liquid | On pulse, spills a large amount of a its current reagent on the floor near it, and might change what reagent it is currently generating. Also fills nearby containers with that reagent, including stomachs. | [Under Construction] |
Containment
In the event that an anomaly is in an inopportune location, or is simply too dangerous to be left aboard the station, it needs to be contained. Containment is simply a term for the controlled elimination of an anomaly, and does not connotate any major damage to the surroundings.
Anomalous Particles
The main way in which science manipulates anomalies is the Anomalous Particle Accelerator, or APE for short. Several of these can be located in the station's anomalous research lab. The APE can shoot three different types of particles - Delta, Epsilon, and Zeta - at an anomaly to affect one of its stats. Simply right click an anchored APE to select the particle type. The stat which each particle type affects is random between anomalies, so you'll need an Anomaly Scanner to figure out the pairs.
Once an anomaly is scanned, the scanner UI should show the three types of particles, and which effect they correspond to.
- Danger particles will cause an anomaly's severity stat to rise. Use this type to increase the anomaly's point output at the cost of personal safety.
- Unstable particles will cause an anomaly's stability to drop. Use this type to return a Decaying anomaly to Stable if you accidentally hit one you want to keep with too much Containment, or if, for whatever reason, you want to deliberately cause an anomaly to go supercritical.
- Containment particles will cause an anomaly's stability to rise, at the cost of anomaly health. Use this type if you want to eliminate the anomaly, or if you want to stabilise a Growing anomaly.
- Transformation particles can randomly add or remove modifiers, like multiplying its point gain, masking its data, making it pulse less often but more powerfully, etc. Use transformation type on anomalies that have poor modifiers to risk turning them into good ones, or on anomalies with bad modifiers to attempt to remove them.
An alternate method of using anomalous particle technology is the CHIMP (doesn't stand for anything lmao), a handheld version of the APE. It can be printed at the protolathe. They aren't too expensive, and take space similar to a security officer's handgun (2x2 with a corner missing) so you can give one to your main anomaly scientist instead of making them drag around a whole APE. They can be especially useful for decaying infectious anomalies on passengers or unruly crew who are refusing to stand still long enough to get an APE set up. They can also be used for self defense in a pinch, though they deal a mere 5 heat damage which isn't very useful, unless your target is at low health already, or is an unarmored Diona. They can be recharged in a Recharger, or a Turbo Recharger.
NOTE: Syndicate scientists can order special "Omega" particle cartridges for the CHIMP. These cartridges do 4 times the damage of a regular CHIMP particle, dealing 20 burn damage per shot. They also add a good amount of severity to an anomaly per shot.
Harvesting
If an anomaly is deemed safe enough to keep around, the next step is to harvest it for research points. An anomaly scanner with an active scan of a still-existing anomaly can be assigned to an Anomaly Vessel, located in the anomalous research lab. These machines will supply the research server with a constant stream of research points, proportional to the severity of the connected anomaly. They can also be upgraded to increase point output.
If an anomaly is becoming too unstable or begins to fizzle out, the vessel will make different sounds and change color to notify the science team. A vessel connected to an anomaly when it goes critical will explode violently, destroying most things nearby but rarely causing a hull breach (spacing).
