Part 17: Day 8 - Gameplay

Day 8: Gameplay

Music: neutral 2


With a new department comes new research. Like Malkuth, Yesod primarily exists to give us some basic gameplay upgrades, with Yesod focusing on the user interface rather than functionality.

G.O Visualization: Gives everything healthbars. Our agents get a red/blue one that shows HP and SP, and Ordeals/breaching Abnormalities get a large red one that shows their name. It makes eyeballing HP/SP numbers much easier.

Damage Normalization: Shows damage taken on the screen, both the number and color. This is good for knowing exactly how much damage things are dealing! There's… really not much to say about this one. It's a basic UI thing.

Abnormality Countermeasures Manual: Upgrades our Clerks' nerves. Right now if any Abnormality or Ordeal appears, the Clerks go running away in a panic immediately. This will allow them to face down most Abnormalities and attempt to suppress them via their pistols. Reminder: their pistols have a 40% chance of dealing 1 Red damage each shot. Clerks are useless, and thus this research is a low priority.



I decide to go with healthbars first.

Now, before we get into the day I have a tiny exploit to show off.



This is D.A.D. D.A.D. has a Prudence of 43, putting them at level 2, but is getting a +6 from their E.G.O gifts, putting them at 49, or level 3.



So, we go into the Strengthen Employees section, and pay 2 LOB to boost them from 2 to 3. We hit 'Confirm' and…



D.A.D. now has a base Prudence of 75, halfway between level 4 and level 5! This trick lets us save a few LOB on getting a massive boost all at once, and while it's situational it's good to keep in mind whenever you're on the preparation screen.



Mizu and Bishop get the Laetitia guns, Mizu gets the suit, and we're pretty much ready for the day.





It's time. Remember to follow the protocols.

We can now see the lower area of Information, where our new Abnormality is hiding.



D.A.D, your Fortitude is showing as being a little low. You'll be training it with Laetitia today.

Gladly. She's a good girl.

Talow, you're going to be working with the new Abnormality today. We need someone else who's able to quickly ascertain how to work with new arrivals. Mizu, you…



...don't tell me.

She didn't even come to the main room this time, sir.

I'll deal with her later. Be ready.

Meanwhile, the top three agents take a trip to the mirror again.



Woah… I'm huge.

I'll never get used to feeling everything just shift like that… wait, did I change at all?

It's no problem! Just smile for the mirror and it'll all feel fantastic!



They confiscated the last gift… nice of Laetitia to give me a new one.

D.A.D. manages to get a Normal result on their first work, and so they're only working with Laetitia for the rest of the day. Luckily, I wanted that anyways.



Morning everyone!

Mizu. You're late.

The new Abnormality really likes it when you leave socks hanging around its room, and it looks like we wanna take the presents it leaves so there's room for more. That'd be… Insight, I think?

Be that as it may, Talow is the one who should have been figuring that out today. Not you. Unless there's an emergency, you're not allowed to leave the office.

...aww. Good luck, Talow. I could smell those presents even through the sweet scent of jerky. They're baaaad.

I'll hold my breath. Thanks.

Nothing else of particular note happens until our second meltdown.



Manager, we're detecting that a new form of Ordeal will be appearing today.

Hopefully they don't give us as much trouble as the first one.

If you're efficient about gathering energy, it should be possible to finish up before the ordeal can rise.

I could, but nobody's died to an Ordeal yet.

What about the Clerks?

I mean nobody who matters.



That's the ordeal alarm, everyone! Stay on your-



...Well! As expected of my Control team's members.



So, Green Dawn! These are, bar none, the least threatening dawn we could hit. Every Agent starts twice as fast as them, so we can break away from them should we get in trouble. Their attacks are slow, and only one spawns per group. The most dangerous thing about them is their corpse attack, which they won't ever get to use unless they manage to butcher a Clerk. The one in Control spawned right next to it and walked in. It's half dead after about 2 seconds in the main room.



Fighting enemies in a main room is normally a risky proposition right now, since the main room's healing shuts off as indicated by the red X above the room. Doubt isn't going to be able to do much to these three, though, so I decide not to worry about it.



Every shot is another laugh! Each round a chuckle! Come, robot! Smile with me~!

These guns work so much better than the skull maces!

You know, this is the first ordeal we've dealt with as a team. I'm proud of you guys.

Well, we can't let Information do all the work.



OH GOD, WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!

I tried to get footage of the corpse attack here, but instead learned that Doubt cannot successfully stab panicking Clerks. They run too quickly for it to get a bead on them. At least you tried, Doubt.

Booooss, Talow and D.A.D. are busy working! Someone needs to do something!

...fine. You're authorized to suppress the target. Make it quick.



Ooh, this new gun is strong!

This is just about the maximum range of very long-range weapons, and Laetitia fires very fast. Since the Doubt remains locked on to the closest target, and multiple Clerks are running around the area distracting it…



We have our first Ordeal where I don't almost get anyone killed.

X, the extra energy refined from the the ordeal has let us reach our quota. We can end the day at your pleasure.

You know the policy. We're getting as much out of the new Abnormality as we can, and then we end the day. Speaking of...



Now. Imagine that you've been playing this game for a few days and nothing's really managed to shock you so far. It's 2 am, nothing's going on, everyone's in bed. You stare automatically at the section where you can see if the Abnormality's risk level is HE or TETH and go to unlock the information…



And out of the corner of your eye, this appears. Unlocking this thing's general information managed to jumpscare me. That doesn't happen often.



Anyways, this is Rudolta of the Sleigh. It's a Christmas abnormality! There's also not a lot else to say about it. Its QC reduces on Normal or Bad work results, and when it hits 0 it breaches and deals White damage to anything nearby.

Nothing left to do but read resumes and wait for the work on Rudolta to be finished so we can all take a good rest. It's nice to have an easy day, but it's so sleepy around here when it happens.

We could always check in on the Agents, Manager. Background noise has been proven on multiple occasions to cause an increase in focus of up to 15% over the course of a workday.

Excellent idea. Make it so.

---



Aaand now I have horns. Again.

Don't remember you ever having them before.

It's a long story.

I got time.

Well then, let me tell you about the Outskirts…

---



Mmhmm, I get that you're angry. But… why are you angry? You were happy until I was about to enter. Is it because I said the mask smells like jerky?

…...

Ahh… right. You're still shy. Well, could you stop poking me with those spikes? They tickle, and to be fair it totally smells like jerky all the time now. It's the best. It actually came in really handy earlier today when...

---



Hello, Laetitia! I'm not who you were expecting, but we were a little shortstaffed after the last work. What say that you and me talk about smiles, mm?

_{...I like smiling faces.}

Then you and I are going to get along fine! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

---



So… Sure is a dead robot in our room.

You've gotta look at this construction. It's so anachronistic… When was it made?

I thought they were some kind of Abnormality.

Setting that aside, I'd like to take it apart.

I just want it out of here. Beta2's body, too. Don't we have janitors?

Yeah, but they don't go to work until after the day's over. Don't worry, you get used to the smell.

Oh, that… that's great to know.

---



Manager, I don't think we should go much further than this. From here on, it appears every one of our containment cells will be melting down with each meltdown.

This is the biggest problem with early game farming. Around meltdown levels 9 and 10, If we can't handle every Abnormality in our entire facility at once then we're going to get overwhelmed by missing works, and at 45-50 energy lost per meltdown missed it can become a herculean task to try and clear the day. I still need to work Rudolta one more time to get the last weapon it has, though...

Don't worry. I have an idea.



We set up everyone to get in one last work with the various Abnormalities across the facility. D.A.D. is first, and the meltdowns cascade everywhere. We have enough time for everyone to finish one last work, and we buy the last weapon with 13 seconds to spare on Mirror of Adjustment.

Alright everyone, pack it in! We've earned ourselves a nice rest.

Talow, I expect the updated file on Rudolta on my desk in an hour.

Alright, boss.



...wait.



Damage-optimized training with HEs is really good, guys.

Anyways, we get our next two rank 5 Agents, and the Control department is still just bouncing around 3-4. Tylana is probably done getting mirrored, I rather like having that hilarious HP stat.

Music: never frozen bottom flows


T-09-80: "The tree simply reaped from what it showed."
O-09-91: This portrait encaptures a moment; it is what we are destined to lose.
T-09-85: Now everything will be just fine.

Mm. Mmm. Hm. Well.

Okay, so, let's get this out of the way first: -85 is a goddamn meme. It is a very rude tool Abnormality for which the only good thing I can say about it is 'sometimes it makes you have 1 less meltdown than you otherwise would.' Outside of that, touching it at all means someone is dying and we can't afford a lot of dying yet. It's a trap option-because of course Lobotomy Corporation has trap options, what were you expecting?

Then there's -80 which is… problematic. It's another tool that just instantly kills your agents if you mess with it the wrong way, and we still can't afford a lot of dying yet! It's not as infamous as -85, but I'm trying to avoid these for the moment.

Lastly there's -91. It ruins our damage modifier for one agent, and can lead to making other agents uncontrollably die. It's not a tool I'd particularly like to take, but I can think of a few cases where it could theoretically be useful. I can't say that for the other two.



This is really just a 'king of the trash heap' competition, but we're going for -91.

Next time, on Lobotomy Corporation: Angela references a Cosmo quiz!

New Guidelines

Rudolta of the Sleigh

New Gear




Requirements: Fortitude 2

New Story

Rudolta of the Sleigh
Mirror of Adjustment