Aight gamers. I’m here to tell you about that pitch black void known as “Space”.
Which is also part of the game’s title. Yet people rarely experiment with it.
And which many people just tend to ignore and think of it as PUBG’s blue zone or “hehe can’t catch me” area rather than it’s whole thing.
So, space. That bitch.
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Space is not silent, it dances and screams. It’s Salvation, yet Damnation. Traitors and Curators alike throw themselves into the pitch darkness, lured by it’s beauty beyond description, and the posibility of booty.
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Yet, many rarely come back, cursed to roam the endless abyss until an adventurer runs into them. No oxygen, space carps, wizards, Syndicate and Nanotrasen alike, no one is happy to see you outside your station.
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This guide will aim to provide you some context on what the fuck this bitch hides, and what dangers await you, and some loot too.
Parte One; Space is Odd (Z-levels)
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For this guide to make some actual fucking sense, I need to explain what Z-LEVELS are.
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Easy on paper, a bit complicated on text, but here we go:
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It’s a 2-D game. There is X (horizontal) and Y (vertical) but no space for Z since you can’t just bury yourself into the floor and just go to nowhere.
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Which brings up the question; how does Z work,then? Very easy; When you reach the limit of X or Y, instead of hitting a fucking wall, you’ll travel to “another” Z-level. You keep going, but you move to another set of Xs and Ys. This could be literally pitch black space, or the equivalent of a fucking theme park.
This means that you will leave behind the station, which means you stop being in range of AI, Tcomms and pretty much anything that doesn’t work across Z-levels.
However, some space ruins (more on that later) have their own TComms array set up to allow communication with the station.
But now the bitch part.
Parte dois: BUT RUE, I ENDED UP BACK ON THE STATION IN 2 MINUTES :CCCC
Here’s the thing:
Z-levels can loop.
Literally, don’t you ever wondered where that disabler shot goes? Or why did the station get hit by a random oxygen canister? Or how did a body that you spaced in evac ended up in fucking arrivals? They can and will loop at some point.
Example: You have Z-levels 1 through ~13 if i remember correctly.
1 Is Centcom.
2 is the station.
5 is Lavaland.
13? is when a shuttle travels, be it the Syndicate one, Escape shuttle, Arrivals shuttle, Mining shuttle. They all travel in 13.
This leaves us Z-levels 3,4 and 6 thru 12 to travel around.
Which means you have limited spaces.
So let me try and sketch out something real quick using my superb Paint skills to explain in a more visual way how Z-levels can look like in a random SS13 round.
AS YOU CAN SEE, ON THIS PROFESSIONALLY MADE DRAWING:
Green is CC
Red is Lavaland
Purple is hyperspace/shuttles travelling
Station’s Z-level is the blue square.
The rest of the (random) Z-levels are the black ones.
The purple arrows point out how they work.
Some are not even connected via X, but they may be connected by Y.
You may jump from 4 to 11 and then go back to 4.
You may go from 4 to 7 to 8 and then back to 4. Maybe 7 and 8 loop X wise but 4 doesn’t.
You may just CONSTANTLY LOOP on a Z-level, like the Station’s Y in this case: nothing above it and nothing below it.
Some will make you have to backtrack because they lead nowhere.
Some will literally make you get lost.
The two things that are a must, is a jetpack and a GPS. Jetpacks help you move around Z-levels very easily. If you can, bring a big ass oxygen canister (notice how I didn’t say tank, CANISTER. Ask Atmos for one*) for both fuel and internals.
GPS, on the other hand, *help you know when the fuck you just crashed into the same Z-level for the 18th time and your shitty emergency oxygen tank is already about to fucking die. Furthermore, some space ruins have their unique GPS signal on space, much like Lavaland bosses.
Which brings up my next point:
Part trois: ooga booga whiteship (And more).
Ah yes, space ruins.
Everyone loves to come across one.
But no one actually puts effort in diving into space and looking for them. That’s a fact. A big fat fucking fact.
What are space ruins? Literally the same as that random shit you come across space. You got some very cool stuff like:
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Ze Whiteship, a working, fucking badass ship you can command. You can usually move it across Lavaland, the Z-level you found it in, the station and, if it spawned, the Derelict Station, also known as KSS13. Whch never happened.
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Derelict Station/KSS13. Rumored to be the predecessor of the now working Space Station 13, it was sabotaged by Syndicate Operatives and blown to hell and back. You can scavenge stuff, or try and make it work again. Both work. Some drones are also around there, and you can keep them as company until they wake up someday and run away from you.
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Hilbert’s Research Facility. This bad boy has some bluespace stuff: Syringe, beaker, bodybag, even a bag of holding. BUT, the most treasured thing? Hilbert’s Hotel, based off a popular paradox. It’s a miniature hotel made out of INFINITE rooms. Not even kidding. Each room looks exactly the same (except for the supposed room you have to decipher the code with, which should let you meet Hilbert himself, or whatever remains of him), with two beds, a shower, food and some lockers to save some stuff in. Keep in mind, this place is not only locked behind reinforced walls and fucking VAULT DOORS, but it’s also defended by four Bluespace turrets, that, while they don’t directly harm the user, will teleport you randomly around a distance of around 20 tiles from wherever you got shot from.
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A drone… outpost… thingy. Forgot the OG name. But it’s basically what’s left of a Syndicate outpost for drones. There’s a vault on the floor that, if you open it, will reward you with some syndicate goodies (Syndie mask and hardsuit), some Cuban Pete rum, and Syndicate Documents, which can be part of a Cargo Bounty that varies from 15 to 30k credits.
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A malfunctioning cloner. This bad boy doesn’t clone people back to life, but literally makes clones of yourself controlled by other people. Keep in mind, it will still clone them with deficits and they will puke and die unless you somehow brought the whiteship there, or a fucking hand teleporter. Or… something.
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A NT fleet being attacked by Syndicate Operatives and Pirates. This one is the definition of “High Risk; High Reward”. Not only are the ships armed with fucking turrets, but the NPCs are thick as fuck. Syndicate STORMTROOPERS have a whooping HP of (if i remember correctly) 200, and THEY COME EQUIPPED WITH ENERGY SHIELDS THAT CAN REFLECT MOST SHOTS. Some of the Syndicate Ships (namely the Fighter and the Dropship) can be kidnapped and used to reach the Syndicate Listening Outpost, but i’m unsure about the Pirate ship or the other ones.
There are many more, and a lot of them cannot be tracked by a GPS, which incentivizes blind search (or just tossing GPSs into deep space and PRAYING TO GOD THEY HIT SOMETHING.
This may be further updated, maybe not. Unsure. But it’s some basic stuff that clears even more basic stuff, hopefully.
