TGMC:Puppeteer
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This page is a part of the TGMC wiki.
TGMC is a project based on the CM-SS13 codebase. |
| UNDEFINED XENO | |
 Puppeteer |
Difficulty: Easy |
Statistics and Evolution Path
The Puppeteer is a Tier 2 and can evolve to other Tier 3 xenomorphs provided there are Tier 2 slots.
- Slash is the melee damage when the xenomorph is in harm intent and slashing marine. In the code, it's melee_damage.
- Melee, bullet, laser, energy, bomb, bio, rad, fire, and acid are soft armor values, not hard armor, which means that they reduce damage by a percentage rather than a flat value.
- Speed is calculated inversely, meaning the lower speed value you have, the faster you are. Xenomorphs are always running, meaning they have a -1.0 boost added to their base speed. (Chart displays running speed)
- Puppeteer is one of the few caste that undergoes stat changes for its primordial upgrade. It also receives new abilities for becoming primo, making it truly a standout caste.
| Health | Biomass | Slash  |
Speed | Melee | Bullet | Laser | Energy | Bomb | Bio | Fire | Acid | Aura Strength | Max Puppets | |
| Base | 365 | 750 | 18 | -1.8 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 10 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 2.8x | 3 |
| Primordial | 385 | 750 | 18 | -1.8 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 10 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 3.0x | 3 |
| Puppet | 250 | 2 | 15 | -1.8 | 14 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
The Puppeteer
The Puppeteer is a formidable xenomorph who uses (up to three) weaker and disposable puppets to overwhelm lone marines. However compared to other T2 xenoes, they lack mobility- meaning that charging into a ball of marines unprepared or unassisted will probably end up in their death.
Playing the Necromancer
The Puppeteer uses biomass instead of plasma. This means that there is no passive regeneration, and you must either use Flay or attack enemy humans using melee to gain the resources to use your abilities. The amount of biomass you gain from attacking an enemy is directly proportional to the amount of damage you do, so for example attacking an enemy with heavy armour will give you less biomass than attacking someone with light armour. Your puppets will also give you biomass when they attack an enemy. Like Gorger and Ravager, weapons such as tanglefoot grenades or pepperballs won't drain your biomass.
Puppets 101
There are two ways to make puppets.
- Use Stitch Puppet. This uses 125 biomass, and will be your go to method of making puppets.
- Use Refurbish Husk. This requires a non roundstart corpse, which has gone cold. Corpses with a red marker have yet to go cold, and you can examine corpses (using shift click by default) to see if they are usable or not.
You can only have up to three puppets at a time, and like all other xenomorphs they can be healed by weeds, or other xeno healing abilities. If a puppet is more than 15 tiles away from you, it will begin to take damage and die. If it is within 15 tiles, it will heal slowly, even without weeds, but this healing isn't enough to counteract the damage incurred by being in crit. Puppets do not benefit from pheromones, unless those pheromones come from the Puppeteer themselves (this can only occur if the Puppeteer is made a hive leader). Puppets will rest and jump in sync with you, so rest if you want to speed up their healing on weeds, or jump if you need them to move with you over an obstacle.
Puppets will attack any object they are adjacent to, and will attack any human target you attack until either the puppet or the target is dead. If you want to stop puppets from attacking something, use Give Orders To Puppets and select Recall. Don't get too attached to your puppets, they aren't very smart, are slower than you, and often get stuck. Fortunately puppets do not have collision with you or other friendly xenomorphs, which prevents them from bodyblocking or shuffling.
Once you have the biomass, you can use Bestow Blessing to permanently upgrade a puppet (until they die). There are three blessings, Fury, Frenzy and Warding, which increase a puppet's melee damage, speed, and soft armour respectively. Each puppet can have one of every blessing, but you can't stack multiple of the same blessing on an individual puppet.
You should avoid attempting to rescue any puppets that are critted and under fire- you lack both the durability and speed to perform a safe rescue. However the sheer amount of melee damage you and your three puppets can deal will quickly overwhelm any lone marine. Concentrate on attacking any marines isolated by a Warrior or Shrike fling, or send your puppets after weak marines using the Seek and attack order. Always make sure you have a path open to retreat, and the health to make that retreat as none of your abilities will help you evade or endure concentrated fire - except for your puppets who may or may not be soaking up the damage in your stead.
In short :
- Don't charge marines recklessly and always be prepared to retreat
- Take advantage of the opportunities other xenoes give and focus on retreating or isolated marines
- Don't die trying to rescue a puppet
Puppeteer Abilities
| Ability | Description | Plasma Cost | Cooldown |
 Toggle Bump Attacks |
Allows you to toggle bump attacks on and off. This allows you to slash any enemy creature by running into them. The red arrow means it's on, you attack when on HARM intent; the green arrow means it's off, you push when on HARM intent. | N/A | N/A |
|---|---|---|---|
 Rest |
Used to rest and get up. You heal faster when resting on weeds. | N/A | 2 seconds |
 Psy Drain |
This ability is used on dead Marines. For every Marine's psyche drained, the Hive will gain between 30 and 90 psychic points, depending on the number of Marines spawned; and 1/8 of a larva. | 50 | N/A |
 Flay |
Attack a marine in melee range and paralyse them for 0.8 seconds. Deals 30 damage and has 15 AP. Also gives you 100 biomass. | N/A | 20 secs |
 Pincushion |
Fires a spike that travels for 6 tiles. Deals 35 damage. | N/A | 5 secs |
 Dreadful Presence |
Slows marines down in a 6 tile radius. This ability is active for 3 seconds and you can move while it is active. The slowdown debuff lasts for 6 seconds. | 50 | 20 secs |
 Refurbish Husk |
Use to make a puppet out of a dead, cold (unrevivable), body. Won't work on the roundstart colonists. Red markers indicate that the body has yet to go cold. Examine a body (shift click by default) to determine if it is hollow or not (if it is, you can't use this ability on it). | N/A | 25 secs |
 Stitch Puppet |
Use on an adjacent tile to create a puppet. You must stay still during the process. | 125 | 25 secs |
 Organic Bomb |
Gives a puppet the 'Seek and attack order' (i.e. bumrush the nearest marine). After 5 seconds or upon attacking an organic, it will explode after a brief windup leaving a 5x5 acid pool which lasts for 12 seconds. Fails if there is no target. If the puppet dies prematurely, or is interrupted for any reason during it's explosion windup (i.e. being pulled, knocked back by an explosion or buckshot ect.) it will not explode into acid. | 100 | 30 secs |
 Give Orders to Puppets |
Gives orders to your puppets. There are 3 orders you can give
|
N/A | N/A |
 Articulate |
Use on a puppet to speak through it. Only talks in xeno language, unfortunately. | N/A | 10 secs |
 Bestow Blessing |
Use on a puppet to permanently upgrade it. You can only stack one of each type of blessing on a individual puppet. The three blessings are -
|
200 | 30 secs |
Primordial Evolution
Once the hive has enough psychic points, your queen has the option to unlock powerful primordial evolutions for each strain. Primordial evolutions grant additional abilities for the relevant class.
For the Puppeteer, this primordial ability is Tendrils .
| Ability | Description | Plasma Cost | Cooldown |
|---|---|---|---|
 Tendrils |
Burrow freshly created tendrils to tangle organics in a 3x3 patch | 175 | 40 SECONDS |
Tips & Tricks
- The stun that Flay provides gives a good opening to attack a marine. Only marines in heavy armour + Tyr 2/B18 will survive 3 puppets and you wailing on them for any meaningful amount of time.
- Pincushion isn't very useful, but it doesn't cost biomass. Try to use it to harass marines that are in a group, but are too dangerous to fully commit to attacking.
- You can upgrade other Puppeteers puppets, though you can't use organic bomb or other such abilities on them.
- You can still gain biomass from combat robots and use Refurbish Husk on them. Don't ask where the biomass comes from though.
| TGMC Roles 
| ||
| TerraGov Marines | Command | Captain, Field Commander, Staff Officer, Pilot Officer, Transport Officer, Mech Pilot |
| Vehicle Crew | Assault Crewman, Transport Crewman | |
| Engineering and Supply | Chief Ship Engineer, Requisitions Officer, Ship Technician | |
| Medical | Chief Medical Officer, Medical Doctor, Researcher | |
| Marines | Squad Leader, Squad Smartgunner, Squad Engineer, Squad Corpsman, Squad Marine | |
| Civilians | Corporate Liaison | |
| Silicon | Combat robots, Synthetic, AI | |
| Xenomorphs | Tier 0 | Larva, Minions |
| Tier 1 | Drone, Runner, Defender, Sentinel | |
| Tier 2 | Hivelord, Carrier, Hunter, Wraith, Bull, Warrior, Puppeteer, Spitter | |
| Tier 3 | Gorger, Defiler, Widow, Ravager, Warlock, Behemoth, Crusher, Praetorian, Boiler | |
| Tier 4 | Shrike, Queen, King, Hivemind | |
| Others | Zombie, Emergency Response Teams, Sons of Mars, | |