Guide to Enkephalin Rush

The forward base in District4.

Objectives

The main goal of this gamemode is to secure the golden bough at the deepest depths of the facility. However, that is not the only challenge to conquer; the facility will be useful to your company, and must be restored to its original function.

Enkephalin Rush consists of more than just mining, combat and exploration, as it is also an engineering gamemode. Clerks, doctors, and chefs have plenty of time to put their creativity to use here, without any time limits a typical lc13 round would impose.

Despite the name, Enkephalin Rush is not meant to be cleared as quickly as possible. It is prudent to take your time and plan to deal with the threat of abnormalities with other players.

Forward Base

It is very important to maintain your base of operations. This is where all purchases are made and abnormality cores are managed. The area may be cluttered as players lazily scatter items about, or throughout the PE refinement process.

It is critical that all facility staff (explained in the next section) purchase and keep a lobotomy corp training manual that can be purchased from the site recovery equipment vendor. This item increases your attributes to scale with the progress of the facility's restoration, increasing for each regenerator and containment cell that is fully repaired.

The Golden Bough

Once the golden bough in the briah layer is found, a player must attune themselves to it by clicking on it. The bough will then summon the fathoms of E.G.O, which generates a random away mission. Only the bough at the end of the away mission can be collected, which will start a vote to end the round.

Regardless of the outcome of the vote, collecting the bough will result in a victory when the round ends.

Roles and Responsibilities

The golden bough in District4.

The roles of Enkephalin Rush can be split into two groups: facility staff and independent staff. The former are dedicated to the restoration of your facility, while the latter are allowed, but not expected to directly involve themselves.

Facility Staff

Any roles that typically appear in ordinary Lobotomy Corp 13 rounds, specifically all variants of agents, clerks, officers, and the manager are expected to contribute to the maintenance of the forward base and the restoration of the facility.

As clerks lack attributes to gain, they should not involve themselves too much in the mining process. While officers are expected to work within the facility, they should reasonably avoid danger as they would in an ordinary Lobotomy Corp 13 round. Managers should avoid the facility unless absolutely necessary, such as to recover fallen staff.

Currently, the manager does not hold a strong niche in this gamemode, lacking its camera console. It is inadvisable to play as a manager unless both officer slots are taken.

Independent Staff

These are mainly doctors and chefs. Players should select these roles if they want to take it easy, and explore the Space Station 13 side of things. Of course, doctors are not safe from the wild ride that typically haunts that role.

Making Money

Early in the round, earning ahn is critical for finding equipment. A small amount can be earned from refining all of the positive enkephalin (PE) boxes at the forward base at the start of the round, but much more can be earned by either selling abnormality cores or by purchasing ahn with the corporate trade console.

Finding Equipment

At the start of the round, most players will purchase coats from the fixer equipment vendor. It is roughly as effective as a HE suit with II protections for all four damage types. However, as you dig through the facility, more options will become available.

Usually, your next best options will arise after defeating a TETH-level abnormality, or one of the HE-level abnormalities that haunt certain departments. Your site recovery equipment vendor will often include other options for purchasing equipment.

Lobotomy Corporation has several purchasable injectors that allow you to extract E.G.O directly from abnormality cores, which will quickly outperform your fixer equipment.

Once the Extraction Department has been uncovered, you will be able to extract E.G.O from abnormalities as you would in an ordinary Lobotomy Corp 13 round. Additionally, the use of the wishing well abnormality is worth consideration.

In the future, other playable wings will have their own versions of the site recovery equipment vendor.

Mining

The process of mining is rather self-explanatory; you start by grabbing one of the many pickaxes available at the forward base, then bump onto or click the many piles of rubble in the facility. However, as you travel further into the facility, the rubble will become denser and take more time to mine.

There are two ways to increase mining speed: the first would be to increase your fortitude attribute if you're an agent or officer, the second would be to purchase better equipment at the site recovery equipment vendor. Not only are better pickaxes available, but there are also a few compact options that can be held in a pocket or backpack.

One should be cautious around regions with denser rubble, as these tiles each have a risk level that determines the time to dig them. This risk level will also determine the difficulty of random events, potentially spawning powerful enemies that threaten your agents.

Mining Events

All ores mined have a 25% chance to trigger a random mining event. These vary from summoning monsters, spewing poisonous gas, or spawning dangerous abnormalities. Though these trend towards impeding progress and endangering your staff, there are a handful of events that are beneficial to the facility.

For example, you can rarely uncover fallen agents equipped in valuable E.G.O., or abnormalities who do not pose a threat to your staff. Very rarely, an abnormality core can be uncovered as well.

Facility Repairs

The fallen facility in Enkephalin Rush features two main devices that require repairs: regenerators and containment cells. While both of these devices will contribute towards your attribute scaling, the costs of repairing them differ greatly.

A broken regenerator in District4's control department.

Regenerators

These require a Safety Department Regenerator Augmentation Kit (or RAK) in order to be repaired. These can be purchased for 300 ahn or 150 Positive Enkephalin (PE) from the site recovery equipment vendor and the corporate trade console respectively.

A broken containment cell found in District4.

Containment Cells

Containment cells only require a screwdriver, wire cutters, and some cable coils to repair, which are in an electrical toolbox. However, all repaired containment cells will become candidates for retrieving abnormalities who've been extracted from their cores.

There are a few strategies that rely on abnormalities being placed in specific areas, as well as the convenience of proximity to regenerators or tool abnormalities. It is important to consult your Manager or Extraction Officer prior to repairs, in case such strategies are being utilized.

Abnormalities

In Enkephalin Rush, the typical LC13 abnormality queue system is not utilized. Instead, hostile abnormalities will be encountered within the facility, whether they are uncovered from rubble or actively wandering its departments.

These abnormalities must be suppressed into their ovate forms before they are any use for the facility. For this reason, abnormalities of higher risk levels are often encountered before equipment and agents of equal levels are available. Such abnormalities should be reported to other agents if sighted, and players should regroup to plan the encounter.

Death and Medbay

In Enkephalin Rush, death for agents is not permanent. Your attributes and E.G.O gifts can be conserved, should another player find your corpse and revive you. LC13's medbay functions similarly to that of the now-defunct TGstation, but most revival surgeries are simple.

In most cases, the player can simply be defibrillated once stripped of their uniform. If damaged, the surgeon will either need to inject the necessary amount of K-corp syringes (found in the forward base) or perform a bruise repair surgery to mitigate the damage.

If the player has been gibbed, their severed head can be brought to the torso fabricator to generate a new body. Then, their four limbs need to be surgically attached. While organic limbs are typically preferred, if they are damaged, their damage will transfer to the patient which can kill them.

Additionally, there are currently mechanics that cause organ decay if a corpse is left unattended for too long. Over time, this may cause a patient severe brain damage, toxins, and other impediments. It is very important to recover fallen agents as soon as possible, even if there are threats present.

A few enemies, such as Blue Star and Big Bird will prevent any possible recovery of the agent.